The play that really got it started…Fort Recovery’s Troy Homan scores on a sac fly in the third inning to give the Indians a 2-0 lead. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks and Julie Wright)
A stellar pitching performance by Alex Dues, some timely hitting, and some exorcisms of past ghosts pushed Fort Recovery past Hillsdale, 3-1, in the Division IV semi-final.
Akron, OH — Never has there been a Recovery Act like the unbelievable, improbable one being enacted by the Fort Recovery baseball team.
From the depths of early-season despair, the Indians are one step away from winning their first Division IV state high school baseball championship.
On a sunny, cloudless day, when early in the season it seemed nothing but gloomy, dark clouds hovered over their heads, the Indians stopped Jeromesville Hillsdale, 3-1, in the semifinals.
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How improbable is this? At 15-12, Fort Recovery came to the tournament with the worst record of 16 contestants.
And when the tournament began, they had lost five of their last seven games and owned a losing record (9-12). But they have won seven straight post-season games. And stand at home plate one win away for their first state title.
They lost the state Class B championship game to Beavercreek of the Dayton area in 1953 and lost semifinal games in 2015 and 2016.
They were plug ugly early in this season and were run-ruled twice — down 10 or more runs after five innings, 13-3 to Coldwater, and 15-0 to Russia.
What turned it around? Perhaps it started when senior pitcher Alex Dues carved a perfect game during a 4-0 win over New Bremen.
Fort Recovery starter Alex Dues scattered six hits in a complete game 3-1 win.
And it was Dues on the mound Saturday afternoon, performing some early-game sleight-of-hand that would make Siegfried & Roy proud.
Except it was Hillsdale’s Jarvis & Lewis who witnessed Dues’ act of making the baseball disappear at a critical juncture.
Fort Recovery led, 1-0, when Hillsdale came to bat for a bizarre third-inning encounter.
It began when Dues gave up a leadoff single to number nine hitter Byron Bickel. Opposing pitcher Jack Fickes hit a double play ball to second baseman Sage Wendel.
In his haste to start the double play, the baseball eluded him for an error, putting runners on second and first with no outs. The next hitter forced the runner at third, but the next man singled to fill the bases with one out.
And the danger bells were ringing in Dues’ ears.
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“I was definitely really nervous,” said Dues. “Bases loaded, one out, and pitching to their best hitter in the four-hole (clean-up man Braylen Jarvis). I had to stay together and throw strikes.
“I had to mix it up on him because I knew he was gonna hit it,” Dues added. “But I struck him out and striking out a hitter like him gave me confidence for the next batter. So I was able to finish that inning with another strikeout (Kael Lewis).”
Recovery’s Reece Wendel runs down this drive in the first inning to save extra bases.
This was after Dues gave up a two-out single in the first and a one-out single in the second, early enough and easy enough for him to overcome. Neither scored.
Fort Recovery scored two of its own in the bottom of the third for a 3-0 lead.
Dues, of his own doing, was in trouble again in the fourth when he walked two, including the number nine hitter, then a run-scoring single to Fickes and it was 3-1 with two on base and two outs. He induced a ground ball to end it.
And from that point, Hillsdale took its bats to home plate for no apparent reason. Dues, mixing in baffling breaking pitches with his fastball, pitched the rest of the way the way he navigated New Bremen during his perfect game.
Over the last three innings he gave up one hit, a leadoff single in the fifth, then retired the final nine in succession, his 90th pitch a ground ball to second baseman Sege Wendel.
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“Yeah, I got stronger and more confident,” said Dues, whose eight wins are half Fort Recovery’s season’s total. “And I feel great right now.”
He certainly should feel proud as part of his team’s massive turnaround.
When things are going good…the Indians Alex Gaerke celebrates a second inning run.
“I think it’s just coming into this tournament,” he said. “There really wasn’t any expectations. We came in with a losing record. Nobody really thought we’d make it this far.
“We just really started getting the bats on the ball, cleaning it up a little on defense and our pitching got stronger. And that’ll do it.”
Indeed it does and indeed it did.
The Indians banged 10 hits and left fielder Reece Wendel was one of only three Indians without a hit. But he put in his 50 cents worth defensively.
The games second hitter, Hillsdale’s Brock Brower crushed one up the left field gap, screaming triple. But Wendle sprinted back, covering around 50 square yards, and snagged it at full speed over his head.
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And he showed his speed not only flees toward the outfield fence, but shows up coming in toward the infield. After a long run toward the infield, he denied Hillsdale’s first batter of the second inning, Lewis, of a base hit.
While the Dues perfect game was an awakening, so was a 14-4 regional win over Montpelier when the Indians produced seven two-out hits.
Every out is important…Recovery’s catcher Riggs Tobe runs down this pop fly in foul territory.
The Indians, wearing white batting helmets signifying, “Hey, we’re the good guys,” scored first, a run in the second inning.
Alex Gaerke singled up the middle and continued to second when the ball hippety-hopped past the center fielder. He moved to third when Gavin Faller struck out, but the catcher dropped the third strike.
When he threw to first base, Gaerke bolted to third and scored easily on Reece Evers’ two-out, first-pitch single for a 1-0 lead.
The two-run Fort Recovery third was as bizarre as it gets. Troy Homan led with a drive down the right field line that skipped to the corner.
Homan, believing the right fielder cut it off, performed a beauteous photo-op with a head first slide into second.
It should have been an easy triple, but it was a measly double with a dirtied uniform.
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But all turned out well for Homan. Hillsdale pitcher Jack Fickes tried to pick off Homan and winged it into center field. Homan moved to third, where he should have been in the first place.
Caden Homan flied to medium-depth center and Troy Homan fled for home. Gavin Casdorph’s peg was perfect and reached the catcher on the fly, way before Homan arrived.
It was close, extremely close. . .and the umpire called him safe, while the third base umpire was discreetly signaling the ‘out’ call.
But the Indians gladly accepted the run and followed it up with singles by Reece Wendel and Caden Grisez and a run-scoring double that was the game’s final run, a 3-1 win for Fort Recovery.
“We were taking a chance with Troy tagging up and we had the one-run lead,” said Fort Recovery coach Kevin Eyink. “We’ll always take a chance there and it worked out.”
And about his team’s early-season miseries and late-season ecstasy, Eyink said, “You know, early in the year we had a few games where we made some errors and they piled up on us. . .we’d get three or four errors in a row and we were out of the game.
“Most of the season we were in games against really good competition and we knew we could compete,” he added. “Our league (Midwest Athletic) is really strong and we knew we could compete with anybody, especially with Alex Dues and Caden Grisez pitching.”
Dues did his job Saturday and Grisez gets the chance Sunday night against Berlin Hiland.
Hiland beat Russia in the other semifinal and Russia beat Fort Recovery twice this season, run-ruling the Indians, 15-0, in five innings, and 2-1 the next day.
Before Russia lost, 2-0, in the other semifinal, Dues was asked if the Indians wanted a third shot at Russia and he said, “That would be cool.’
Not to be. But as Indians coach Eyink said, “We’re ready for whomever we play.”
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