St. Henry pitcher Tate Boeckman was brilliant, limiting Fairview to just one run on three hits for the first six innings. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Leading 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, St. Henry saw Fairview score three times on a bases-loaded double to yank defeat from the jaws of victory, crushing the Redskins effort to repeat as ACME state champs, 4-3.
Kalida, OH – Short and sweet, it’s why there’s a bottom of the seventh in a high school baseball game, and why the home team always gets one last at bat.
It’s why you never take an extra scoring opportunity for granted, as St. Henry had the bases loaded in the top of the seventh with one out…and couldn’t score.
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It’s why having a potential run doubled off base earlier in the game – Jack Fullenkamp in the fifth – can come back to haunt when you least expect.
And why that old baseball adage about the hardest out to get is the final out is such a painful lesson when it happens to you.
But it happened to the St. Henry Redskins Monday night in the championship final with the Fairview Apaches (Sherwood, Ohio). Leading 3-1 and needing just three outs to secure their second consecutive ACME state title in as many years, St. Henry pitcher Tate Boeckman and the Redskins had to endure it all.
Boeckman, coming off some arm issues earlier in the month was rested and ready, and pitched brilliantly through the first six innings, allowing only a lone run in the second inning, while limiting the Apaches to just three hits. Boeckman walked three, and struck out four, but also benefited by a pair of early double plays that bailed him out of a first inning jam and a leadoff single in the second inning.
And the worst of ironies…St. Henry had a golden opportunity in the top of the seventh to salt the game away when they loaded the bases with singles by Will Nietfeld and Cooper Laguire, and a walk to Boeckman, but couldn’t score when Landson Schwartz hit into an unusual 5-2-3 double play to bail out Fairview. It turned out to be a momentum crusher.
St. Henry’s Drew Langenkamp follows the flight of his run-scoring double in the fourth inning.
Earlier, St. Henry scored single runs in the second, fourth, and fifth innings.
Fairview collected its only run on an infield groundout that scored a loadoff base runner who got on via strikeout and a wild pitch, then advanced on a balk and a passed ball. So the seventh inning arrived with already a pattern for the unusual and the unexpected.
Fairview singled to open the inning. Boeckman walked the next hitter, and then induced a sac bunt attempt that went right back to the mound. He picked it up and threw out the lead runner at third base.
But after knocking off the lead runner he issued a second walk in the inning to load the bases. Visibly tired, and struggling to throw the breaking ball that had been so good to him for the first six innings, Boeckman now faced Fairview’s Calvin Kepler, who owned one of the four previous hits, a single back in the first.
“I was looking for a fastball to drive,” said Kepler, afterwards. “I was sure he was going to throw it because he was struggling to throw the breaking ball.”
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And with the bases loaded, Kepler deduced correctly. On the second pitch he got a fastball waist high and lined it high and deep to left field, over the head of outfielder Harrison Schwieterman. The ball struck the base of the fence, the hardest hit ball of the game by either team, scoring all three runners…the winning run barely avoiding the tag attempt of catcher Drew Langenkamp. It happened so quickly that for a second no one realized that the go-ahead run had actually scored because the throw from shortstop Austin Kunk to home plate actually beat the runner. But the umpire ruled ‘safe’, and Fairview walked away with the big trophy, the 2026 ACME state champs.
“The last three outs are always the toughest to get,” said St. Henry coach Tyler Bruns.
Maybe, or maybe not…the ball appeared to beat the runner, but somehow Fairview’s Landon Ridgeway got to the plate in time to score the winning run.
“But you couldn’t have asked for a better ballgame. And a heckuva’ game from Tate. He’s been battling shoulder soreness for the past four or five weeks. I asked him earlier in the day if he could go, I expected four or five innings, and he ends up throwing 115-120 pitches. He gave it everything he had and we played fantastically on defense. But they came up with a timely hit there at the end and made some miscues by us count. They brought it home.”
Representative of quality high school baseball, the 2026 ACME game was symbolic of the organization’s effort to provide a competitive learning experience within the community, allowing the team that will play together next spring to gain experience accordingly as a unit during the summer.
The game was played in a crisp 2 hours and 5 minutes before a packed house – approximately a thousand – from the respective communities.
Body language…Drew Langenkamp picks up his mask a final time following Fairview scoring the winning run in the seventh.
Fairview won it with 4 runs on 5 hits and committed one error.
St.Henry saw its title repeat effort come a run short with 3 runs on 7 hits and committed two errors.
“You think this doesn’t mean something to these two communities and to these kids?” said former hall of fame coach and the son of founder Lou Brunswick, Mark Brunswick. “We just witnessed the essence of what ACME baseball is about. This is what my dad envisioned in 1960 when he started ACME.”
Lou Brunswick was a walking, talking manual of how to play the game….winner of five state titles and 750 games in 35 seasons at Coldwater High School. He loved the game and he loved sharing with others the overlooked nuances that mean the difference in winning and losing.
Throw strikes.
Make the routine plays on defense.
Limit your strikeouts, offensively, and force an opponent to make a play to beat you.
And the last three outs are always the toughest.
That one always made him smile.
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