His best home run trot…Versailles’ Jack Steinbrunner circles the bases after smacking a walk-off home run in the bottom of the sixth to beat Marion Local in Saturday’s 11u play. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In a pair of 11u and 12u games, dramatic home runs highlighted the action in Day 2 of the Stammen Classic tournament in Versailles, and proved that power can come from a small package.
Versailles, OH – What we found out in Day 2 of the Stammen Classic is that Fort Recovery’s 12u Garrett Siefring is accustomed to hitting home runs. He’s one of the biggest kids on the field, and his two lasers in a 6-5 win over St. Henry were nothing new.
But across town, in a dramatic 11u finish between Versailles and Marion Local, Versailles’ Jack Steinbrunner was the smallest player on the field and still walked it off with a blast to left in the bottom of the sixth to give his team an unexpected 7-6 win in extra innings.
Those two games highlighted an exciting day of amateur baseball on Saturday, the essence of baseball entertainment. People like the long ball, and those privileged to see Siefring and Steinbrunner will not soon forget.
In the 11 am 12u game at North Star, Fort Recovery jumped out in the first inning on a Siefring blast to center field that went thirty field over the head of the fielder and one-hopped the 285 foot fence. He easily circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run, scoring a teammate in front of him.
In the third, still leading 2-0, Siefring again rifled a shot, this time to left, that again cleared the fielder’s head and rolled all the way to the fence. He circled the bases for a second time, scoring a runner in front of him, to make the score 4-0, Fort Recovery.
Fort Recovery’s Garrett Siefring chugs for the plate on the second of his two inside-the-park home runs in Saturday’s 6-5 win over St. Henry.
An inning later Recovery scored another run to go up 5-0, only to see St. Henry mount a comeback in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by a two-run single by Eli Rosenbeck, to tie the game at 5-5. But Recovery scored again in the fifth to go up 6-5, leaving St. Henry one last chance to tie or take the lead in their final at bat. The the final out of the game took a called third strike with men on base, Recovery walked away the winner, and the Siefring home runs proved to be the winning difference.
“I like to hit,” he said afterwards. “To me it’s the most fun part about playing baseball.”
And his skill set, and aptitude for his age, is unmistakable.
“I started working last year to improve my hand-eye coordination,” he said afterwards. “And it’s worked. This year I have six home runs that went over the fence, and five that were inside-the-park.”
He’s so formidable that when he came to bat for the third time in the fourth inning St. Henry chose to walk him intentionally, loading the bases.
“It didn’t bother me,” he added with a smile.
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The discussion has long raged as to whether hitters are born, or developed. That is, it comes naturally for some, while it never comes to others. Some who work on it all their life amount to being average hitters with average results. But eleven home runs in a month’s worth of 12u baseball signals something more, and much better about Garrett Siefring, even against 12-year-old pitching.
And he made the catch…Fort Recovery’s Koy Bihn is all focus on this play in Saturday’s 12u win over St. Henry.
He plays two sports at Fort Recovery, basketball and baseball, and admits that basketball is probably his favorite of the two.
But his ability to adjust to a pitched baseball, up, down, inside and out, is an unmistakable talent that bodes well for his development in the future.
An hour later, and across town, Versailles and Marion Local locked up in an 11u game that saw the Flyers jump out early and eventually build a 5-0 lead.
But in the fifth Versailles began pecking away at the Marion advantage, taking advantage of a couple of walks, a couple of errors, and a couple of misplayed balls put in play. Whatever, by the end of the fifth Versailles had tied the game 5-5, and the game went into and extra frame to decide a winner.
Marion scored in its half of the sixth. But Versailles came right back to immediately tie the score in the bottom of the sixth, bringing pitcher Jack Steinbrunner, the smallest play on the field, to the plate with two outs.
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Playing on the varsity girls softball field, where the distances to the fence do not exceed 200 feet, Steinbrunner took a couple of pitches before swinging at a pitch from the Marion pitcher that was literally over his head. Some irony…Steinbrunner is not more than 5 feet tall.
Eli Rosenbeck’s fifth inning single helped St. Henry’s late comeback in 12u play against Fort Recovery.
Nonetheless, he tomahawked the ball, making hard contact, and drove the ball out to center field and over the fence for the winning walk-off home run, an unlikely shot from the smallest player on the field, and a 7-6 Tigers’ win.
He made the most of his home run trot, his teammates mobbed him at home plate, and it became another Stammen Classic memory for 2025.
Bracket play continues in Sunday’s forecasted heat, and times and matchups can be followed online with the Versailles Youth Baseball link.
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A sponsor’s note…our thanks to Nikon Corporation and Roberts Camera, in Indianapolis, for making available the latest state-of-the-art optics for use in photographing this year’s Stammen Classic. As an impressive nod to technology, Nikon always seems to do something above and beyond what you’ve experienced before. We appreciate their support with our coverage of this year’s Stammen Classic event.
Out at home plate during Saturday’s 11u action between Marion Local and Versailles…and you just don’t see many left-handed catchers.
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