From hail storms to hailing the Tigers

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians and Tigers last left the field getting pelted by little white balls of ice.

Upon their return to the field Wednesday, they both were pelting a different kind of white ball, but the Tigers were much happier with the result.

The Fort Recovery High School baseball team finished the final three innings from an April 9 game against the Versailles Tigers that got delayed because of hail and rain, falling 6-1 Wednesday and then dropped a second game 4-0.

“Obviously we’re disappointed,” FRHS coach Kevin Eyink said. “It always hurts to lose, so we’re disappointed but we’ve got some good things there that we want to build on.

“Against (A.J.) Griesdorn, in the first game, we hit the ball pretty well. We put eight hits out there against a good pitcher. I’m pretty happy with that. We got to keep building on that.”

With the win, Versailles (22-4, 8-1 Midwest Athletic Conference) clinched a share of the MAC baseball title. The Tigers tied with the Division IV No. 8 Minster Wildcats, who beat St. Henry 1-0 later in the afternoon.

“Baseball is a funny game,” said Versailles coach Brad Koopman. “One inning in an extra-inning game cost us that one MAC game and that’s the difference between having it yourself and sharing it with Minster.”

The Indians resumed the game Wednesday down 4-0 and with Versailles having two runners on base with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. (For more information on the first four innings, check out the story originally published in The Commercial Review on April 11.) Fort Recovery (8-10, 4-4 MAC) immediately made a pitching change to have Troy Homan take over on the mound.

Coming into Wednesday, Carson Bergman had a 2-0 county and drew a walk from Homan. Jace Watren followed with an RBI single before Michael Osborne plated another run with a bases-loaded walk.

A fly out to left field ended the inning, but the Indians already trailed 6-0 with only nine outs remaining.

Griesdorn gave up a single to Alex Gaerke, but induced two ground outs and a strikeout to take three of those outs away. He also finished the game with a clean seventh inning.

Fort Recovery High School third baseman Caden Grisez fields a ground ball on Wednesday during the second game of the day against the Versailles Tigers. FRHS dropped the game 4-1 and the Indians only collected two hits in the game. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

“I think the biggest thing was a month ago, when we got that started and came out of the gate hot,” Koopman said. “We were able to put the ball in play and make some things happen and give us that lead to start with. Once you’ve got that lead and you have a fresh pitcher like that, it’s a big bonus.”

The Indians still managed four hits in the final three innings. Three of them came in the sixth inning.

Troy Homan notched the first one with a single to left field. Versailles got him out on second base as part of a fielder’s choice in the next at bat.

Caden Homan hit the second single to move Riggs Tobe into scoring position. Sage Wendel finished the job with a base knock to the right side that scored Tobe. Nothing else came to fruition as Griesdorn struck out Rex Leverette.

Errors ended up being the difference maker in the second game. After an initial run scored in the third inning, Fort Recovery gave up a stretch of four straight errors to allow three runs to score in the fourth inning.

“If we play clean and don’t make those mistakes, it’s a 1-0 game,” Eyink said. “Going into the tournament here, if we have to score three or four runs, we can’t be only getting one run or get shut out. We have to get some hits together.”

The only FRHS run came in the sixth inning. Troy Homan worked a full count before getting beamed and making his way to first base. He advanced to third on an error by Watren in center field and a passed ball. Caden Homan’s ground out to shortstop plated Troy Homan on the next play.

While Fort Recovery’s defense and offense struggled, the pitching showed out in game No. 2.

Leverette started the game, only giving up one earned run on two hits and two walks, while striking out seven guys.

Gaerke held the Tigers scoreless in three innings of relief, while collecting six punchouts.

“Rex pitched really well and Alex pitched really well,” Eyink said. “We didn’t make the plays, which has been up and down all year.”