The Versailles High School baseball team won a closely contested game at Arcanum, 3-2, in nine innings. Both teams competed hard and made plays. It came down to the Tigers getting a few more hits than the Trojans.
Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
By Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
ARCANUM — In the first game of the season for both teams, it took extra innings to decide a winner. The Versailles High School baseball team captured a 3-2 win over the home team Arcanum Trojans in nine innings on March 27.
Head coach Brad Koopman said the team did a great job adjusting throughout the game to get the win.
“We talked about it before the game started, it’s not a perfect day, baseball is not a perfect game. Take whatever craziness happens, adjust and keep going. They did a great job of that,” Koopman said.
For Arcanum, head coach Randy Baker said he will take a quality game against a quality team anytime. While Baker obviously wanted to come away with the win, it was still a well-played game from his team.
“I hate to lose more than anybody, but I will take this. We’ll grow from this and we’ll get better,” Baker said.
There were times where both teams would have bases loaded and could only score a run or two. The Tigers opened up the scoring in the top of the second inning getting one run.
In the bottom of the fourth, senior Bryson Sharp started the inning with a double to get the offensive momentum going. Senior Carson Tegtmeyer and sophomore Seth Fearon both drove in a run to give the Trojans a 2-1 lead after the fourth.
Versailles tacked on a run in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game up at 2-2.
Both teams made plays to keep themselves in the game. Late in the game, senior Nate Kessler made a leaping catch to steal a hit away from Versailles to prevent a rally and end the seventh inning.
Koopman said for his team, the pitching did a great job attacking hitters and kept them in the game. Senior Joe Ruhenkamp pitched for the majority of the game for them.
Junior AJ Griesdorn hit the game-winning RBI to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. Arcanum did have bases loaded, but the pitching from Versailles held the Trojans off the scoreboard to get the road win.
Baker said he was pleased with the hitting, pitching and the defense. It came down Versailles being able to find some more hits to get the win.
“I thought we hit the ball really well, we just hit right to them. Some of their balls found some spots and that’s the game of baseball,” Baker said.
Versailles ended the game with 12 hits and Arcanum had six hits.
This is Koopman’s first win as the head coach of the Tigers. He said the team came in with the right attitude and it showed during the game.
“It was nice to see that fight, that support for everybody. It didn’t matter what situation, these guys were right in to help each other out, to get after it and give full support,” Koopman said.
Tegtmeyer pitched five innings for the Trojans and struck out four batters. Freshman Regan Christ pitched three innings and struck out three batters and senior Caden Thompson pitched an inning.
Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]
