By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

FORT RECOVERY — After being down entering the seventh inning, Arcanum came back and eventually won the game, 6-5, in extra innings at Fort Recovery.

Head coach Randy Baker said he takes the blame for the team coming out flat, but gave credit to his team for continuing to compete and pull off the comeback win.

“We’re fortunate to win this game. The reason we won this game was because we stayed in it. We didn’t hang our heads, we kept battling. In the seventh we’re down two and we go up one. We battle, that’s what we do. Very proud of the guys,” Baker said.

Arcanum started the game making solid contact. Senior Carson Tegtmeyer scored senior Bryson Sharp after he led the inning off with a double. But in the bottom of the first inning, Fort Recovery took the lead after an error extended the inning. After the second inning, Fort Recovery was up 3-1.

The defense for the Trojans started to come alive as the game went on. In the third, Seth Fearon got the flyout in centerfield and got the runner out at home plate to end the inning on the double play. Right after, senior Nate Kessler drove in a run to make it a 3-2 game.

Throughout the game, Arcanum made small mistakes that let Fort Recovery keep the lead. They were able to get runners on base, but couldn’t get them across home plate. Baker said they also had some bad baserunning mistakes.

Fort Recovery added on another run in the sixth to make it a 4-2 game entering the seventh. From there, junior Dakota Kendig got on base to lead off the inning. Two batters later, it was bases loaded with no outs.

Senior Jaxson Christ drove in a run on a sacrifice flyout to go down 4-3. Then senior Aiden Psczulkoski tied the game with a RBI. A wild pitch then gave Arcanum a 5-4 lead.

But with two outs, Fort Recovery tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh. In the eighth, the baserunning mistakes happened and Arcanum couldn’t take advantage of a lead-off double.

But in the ninth, senior Caden Thompson drove in what would be the game-winning run on a sacrifice floyout after the bases were loaded once again.

But in the bottom of the ninth, Fort Recovery had a pair of dangerous hitters, including Cale Rammel, up to bat. Despite a misplayed ball in the outfield, the defense stepped up as Kessler was able to get the lead runner out at third base when Fort Recovery got two runners on.

Baker said after the team had some mistakes in the ninth, they picked each other up and continued to fight. Arcanum held off Fort Recovery to grab the road win.

Baker said playing competition, like Fort Recovery, helps the team learn from their mistakes in a game situation and will help when the tournament comes around.

“Playing higher level competition, that sets us up for the tournament. There’s always a teaching moment, a learning moment. Hopefully, we learn from today some things we need to correct before tournament time comes,” Baker said.

Psczulkoski pitched 5.1 innings and had three strikeouts. Kessler pitched for 0.2 innings and helped keep Fort Recovery off the scoreboard. Freshman Regan Christ pitched three innings and had a strikeout as he closed out the game.

Arcanum is now 18-5 with a 10-1 conference record. They will have Fort Loramie on May 15 and then host either Dixie or National Trail on May 17 for their first game of the postseason.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]