St. Henry’s Drew Langenkamp circles the bases after his fourth inning grand slam blew Thursday’s win over Fort Recovery wide open. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
After starting slowly, St. Henry caught fire on a Fort Recovery error in the fourth inning Thursday to score eighth runs and streak past the Indians, 10-5…Redskins keep pace with Coldwater, who lost to Minster.
St. Henry, OH – St. Henry baseball coach Mike Gast smiles when he makes the point that he knows that he has a good baseball team.
Following Thursday’s 10-5 win over Fort Recovery (13-6, 5-3 in MAC), Gast’s Redskins stood 16-2 on the season, and 6-2 in conference play, just a game behind Coldwater at 6-1, who dropped its first MAC game of the season with a 7-6 road loss at Minster.
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At 16-2 one would think any coach would need a search warrant to find an issue on which to improve, but not Gast, who’s commitment to playing the game the right way is second to none…and a reason St. Henry is a perennial threat in the post-season state tournament.
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“I tell them they’re a good baseball team,” said Gast after the ‘Skins overcame a 4-0 deficit midway through Thursday game to score eight times in the fourth inning, on their way to an eventual 10-5 win. “But sometimes you have to come out ready to play like you’re a good baseball team. That’s can be a concern.”
And a concern heard frequently at every level of baseball.
Ask Terry Francona after the Reds just got swept in back-to-back series with Pittsburgh and the Cubs.
Ask Nebraska coach Will Bolt after the 34-12 Cornhuskers got blown out of their three-game series with Ohio State last weekend.
In fact, ask just about any good high school baseball team on a given day. It’s hard to fathom, but it happens. Some days you just play with a different clock than others.
Fort Recovery’s Alex Gaerke made it tough on St. Henry over the first three innings, striking out five.
Case in point, Fort Recovery, behind pitcher Alex Gaerke, is having a good spring, and with Gaerke on the mound Thursday St. Henry was hardly prone to take the Indians for granted Thursday.
Gaerke came out firing seeds opposite St. Henry starter Max Delzeith, and after picking up single runs in the second and third innings, and two more in the fourth, held a commanding lead when St. Henry came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth.
To Gast’s point, the Redskins seemed mesmerized by Gaerke’s velocity and ability to land a sharp-breaking curveball. Gaerke is, by consensus, one of the MAC’s top starting pitchers.
But he left a fastball up in the zone to leadoff hitter Jake Schwieterman, who roped it to the outfield gap for a double. One out later Owen Zimmerman drove him in with a single to cut the deficit to 4-1.
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Gaerke then stubbed his own toe by walking back-to back hitters, before striking out St. Henry’s Jack Huelsman for the second out of the inning. Needing only one out to get out of the dugout without further damage, Gaerke induced Tate Boeckman to hit a tailor-made two hopper to Recovery first baseman Luke Fortkamp, who somehow misplayed it into a bases-loading error instead of the third out, while allowing a second run to score. That brought catcher Drew Langenkamp to the plate with the sacks jammed and he promptly hit the first fastball strike he saw over the centerfield fence for a grand slam, staking St. Henry to a 6-4 lead.
St. Henry shortstop Austin Zimmerman makes solid contact to drive in a run in the 8-run fourth.
Owen Zimmerman followed Langenkamp’s blast with an infield single, bringing Schwieterman to the plate for the second time…and he promptly clubbed a fastball over the left field fence for his second extra base hit of the inning, a two -run homer, and suddenly St. Henry was ahead, 8-4.
“My concern maybe is us waiting for something to happen, like the error, instead of creating momentum for ourselves,” said Gast. “And I know it happens, but we’re not playing to be like everyone else. That was a great inning and we had some really great at bats, some good two-strike swings – Austin Zimmerman, Owen Zimmerman, Carter Laguire – after starting really poorly.”
It knocked Gaerke out of the game, and it knocked the comeback fire out of Fort Recovery, who did manage a run in the sixth on a double by Colton Post who later scored on a fielder’s choice. St. Henry answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth off reliever Dylan Klenke to conclude the scoring at 10-5.
St. Henry won it with 10 runs on 8 hits and no errors.
Fort Recovery lost it with 5 runs on 9 hits and 1 error.
While one can understand a coach or manager’s concern over a slow start in a baseball game, the Reds’ Sparky Anderson used to say the reason baseball was a nine-inning game was to give everyone in a lineup…Rose, Bench, Morgan, Perez, Griffey, Concepcion, and Geronimo…a chance to eventually win the game.
And while not to be compared with the ’75 Reds, Gast’s St. Henry team has enough talent up and down the batting order…enough to pop…to eventually win against just about anyone. Their lone loss in conference so far has been to Coldwater, 7-3, on a day in which they were anything but their best.
“I didn’t feel like we had any energy…on the field, on the bench, our at bats…and there was some challenging that in the fourth innings. And we responded.” – St. Henry coach Mike Gast
“I just didn’t feel like we had any energy [today]…on the field, on the bench, our at bats…and there was some challenging that in the fourth inning, and we responded,” said Gast.
The home runs by Lankenkamp and Schwieterman were most timely, and impressive – hard-struck balls that needed no help from the 15-mph breeze blowing out to left.
“Drew Langenkamp is so freakin’ good right now,” smiled Gast. “And maybe I’m a small-school coach, but I haven’t seen too many catchers better than him. And I’ve been super impressed with his approach at the plate over last year.
“And Jake Schwieterman has struggled here for a few games, but we remind him that he’s really good at the plate, and to just be confident. And today he had two really big hits for us.”
The tournament draw comes on Sunday and Gast’s Redskins will again be a top seed, based on their talent, their pride, and the fact…concerning or not…that it’s not always how you start the game, but how you finish.
“But eventually it can cost you, too,” reminds Gast, who considers every angle of both success and failure.
And that’s true, proven by those same ’75 Reds.
As good as Rose, Bench, Morgan, and Perez were…they never went undefeated.
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