Thursday, July 5th, 2007

Cavaliers earn tickets to District ACME

Coldwater downs Parkway to stay perfect in tournament

By Mark Ruschau
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Coldwater catcher Keith Schoenherr tags Parkway's Drew Luginbill, but doesn't have the ball, located left of the players, during Tuesday's ACME tournament winner's bracket final at St. Henry. Coldwater won 10-4.

ST. HENRY - The number one seed and regular season champion Coldwater Cavaliers qualified for the ACME district tournament Tuesday night as they defeated the Parkway Panthers 10-4 in the Mercer County sectional winners bracket championship at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.
Coldwater will take a 19-5 record to Thursday night's sectional championship game against the Fort Recovery Indians who defeated the Parkway Panthers in the losers' bracket championship game Wednesday. The Indians beat Marion Local 10-9 in eight innings in the nightcap to advance to the losers' bracket final.
The Cavalier winning formula on this night was old as the game itself, putting the ball in play with timely hitting, defense and good pitching.
On the night the Coldwater offense was based on small as they had five bunts, three for sacrifices and two for base hits The Cavaliers also got great production from the bottom of the batting order as batters 6-9 - Jordan Borgerding, Justin Goubeaux, Bill Geeslin and Gavin Keck - combined for six hits in 12 at-bats. The quartet scored six runs, drove in four and laid down two sacrifice bunts.
"I know those in the bottom of the order did well and I told them that I can say enough about what they did," said Coldwater coach Romie Schwieterman. "We are a very unselfish, blue collar type of team. We have no super stars, we just have a team that wants to play and enjoys playing together and they are willing to do whatever needs to be done to win.
"You stress execution and defense and pitching and tonight we got it all," continued Schwieterman. "They were never evident, then in the fourth we moved runners, we bunted, we squeezed and when you can do that it kind of breaks the back of the other team. We knew Parkway would keep coming back and they did until we got Goubeaux's home run in the seventh."
The small ball came into play right away in the first inning as Chad West-gerdes walked to lead off the game, was sacrificed to second by Tony Harlamert and he scored on a single by Keith Wenning.
Coldwater added two more markers in the second to make the score 3-0. Jordan Borgerding and Tony Goubeaux singled to start the inning. After Bill Geeslin moved the runners with a sacrifice, Gavin Keck and Westgerdes each plated a run with a RBI single.
Coldwater blew the game open scoring four times in the fourth to take a 7-1 lead. Goubeaux led off with a single, was bunted to second by Geeslin and scored on a double by Keck. Keck scored when a ground ball by Westgerdes was thrown away fro a three base error. Keck then scored on a beautiful squeeze bunt by Harlamert. Harlamert scored the final run of the inning on a double by Wenning.
Fort Recovery-Marion Local
The Fort Recovery Indians recovered from blowing two leads late in the ball game to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to defeat the Flyers in an elimination game in the nightcap.
Fort Recovery a 6-2 lead through the first three innings. Bobby Rammel and Curt Heitkamp each had a two run double to pace the Indian attack
The Flyers score five runs in the fifth inning to take their firs t lead of the game 7-6 on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Albers.
Fort Recovery came back to take a 9-6 lead, scoring three times in the sixth keyed by singles by Derek Koesters and Matt Braun.
Marion rallied back one last time, scoring twice in the seventh on RBI singles by Nathan Thobe and Marcus Moeller.
Fort Recovery scored the winning run in the eighth as Toby Metzger, Bobby Rammel and Derek Koesters walked to load the bases. With Matt Braun at the plate and a 1-0 count, Flyer pitcher Troy Prenger uncorked a wild pitch to allow Metzger to score the winning run.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Coldwater's Justin Goubeaux went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in Tuesday's win over Parkway.

Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Parkway's Joel Henkle, with glove, moves to try and catch the ball as Coldwater's Justin Goubeaux reaches first during Tuesday's winner's bracket final at the County ACME tournament.

Additional online stories on this date
ROCKFORD - An undisclosed individual from Dublin Township is in the process of purchasing and developing 70 acres of land on Rockford West Road, just outside the village, according to Village Administrator Jeff Long. [More]
Tribe fights back to earn district ticket
ST. HENRY - Things looked bleak for the Fort Recovery Indians after the first inning of the consolation bracket ACME tournament final at St. Henry on Wednesday. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
The Mercer County Jail was overbooked during the past weekend, with as many inmates housed at regional lockups as there were in the local jail.
She
Mercer County officials have scheduled their annual household hazardous waste pickup program for later this summer.
The household hazardous waste day is part of an overall program of increasing recycling and proper disposal efforts by county residents, county officials said.
WAPAKONETA - A Celina man faces at least five years in prison after pleading guilty to breaking into a St. Marys-area home and assaulting a man in January.
A Celina woman faces the likelihood of prison after pleading guilty to charges of burglary and theft during an appearance in Mercer County Common Pleas Court. Three co-defendants involved in the same incident are now serving three-year sentences.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Grand dropped to 9-11 on the Great Lakes season with a 5-3 loss to Licking County on Tuesday night at Denison University. The Settlers stay a game back of the Mariners in the league standings at 9-12.