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Tuesday, 10 July 2007 |
 Wapak?s Kaleb Coil heads into third base during Monday?s Junior ACME district tournament game held in Wapakoneta. Coil scored on the play. (Staff photo/ Joshua Keeran)
'Skins rally to stay alive
By JOSHUA KEERAN
Sports Editor
Facing elimination in the 2007 Junior ACME district four tournament, the Wapakoneta VFW Redskins showed on Monday night just why baseball is known as America’s past time after a crazy finish led to jubilation at home plate for the ‘Skins.
“That was a baseball game right there,” Wapakoneta coach Nick Sammetinger said.
After falling behind early to Coldwater, Wapak rallied twice from two separate three-run deficits to take a one-run lead into the seventh inning, only to lose that advantage before coming back again in its final at-bat for an 8-7 victory.
Leading 6-5 after six innings of action, it appeared the Redskins were on their way to a come-from-behind win with Wapak reliever Josh Vorhees just needing a strike to finish the deal. With runners on first and third, two outs and a full-count, Coldwater’s Alex Kramer came through with a single to right field to tie the game at 6-6.
With momentum on their side, the Cavs struck again when the very next batter, Jordan Woeste, lined a go-ahead RBI single to center field that put the Cavs in the driver’s seat to a district title.
Wapak, though, had other thoughts.
“With the top of our lineup coming up, I kind of knew at that point it would be hard to get us out, so I was actually kind of calm when they took the lead,” Sammetinger said.
Down to what could have been their final at-bat of the season, the Redskins drew back-to-back walks off reliever Alex Winner to put the tying run in scoring position. Wapak’s Kaleb Coil advanced the tying run to third on a single to right field, setting the stage for Vorhees.
With the bases juiced and no outs, Vorhees made amends for giving up the lead minutes earlier by drilling a two-run, game-winning single to center field that result in him being mobbed by his teammates.
“That was clutch,” Sammetinger said. “(Vorhees) was down on the hill and was hanging his head, but we got him back up in the dugout and told him just make up for it at the plate.
He did his share and I’m proud of him.”
The game started off on the wrong foot for the ‘Skins as several miscues in the field led to a three-run inning by the Cavs.
The ‘Skins, however, responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first thanks to RBI singles by Derek Shark and Dustin Gerlach.
Coldwater padded its advantage in the top of the third inning when Winner delivered with a two-run single to left field that put the Cavs ahead 5-2.
Wapak came storming back in the bottom of the third inning when it scored four times to take a 6-5 lead. The four runs scored in the following manner: a RBI double to the left-field fence by Cale Tabler (5-3), a RBI infield single by Jordan Ruppert (5-4), a RBI bases on balls by Helmstetter (5-5) and a RBI hit-by-pitch of Coil (6-5).
On the mound for Wapak, Greg Stoll started and worked three innings, Shane Helmstetter pitched two innings in relief, while Vorhees worked the final two innings for the victory.
Craig Welsch started the game for Coldwater and went 2 2/3 innings before giving way to Winner, who pitched the rest of the way.
Wapak and Coldwater will play for the third time in four days today at 6 p.m. with a district championship awaiting the winner.
“Errors keep plaguing us in the tournament. We got to cut them out and play fundamental baseball (today) to beat these guys because they are a very fundamentally sound team,” Sammetinger said. “They are going to come ready to play, and we have to come ready to play.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 July 2007 )
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