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Fort Recovery's Luke Fortkamp slides into second base as Celina's Brodee Schulte-Arnold fields the ball during Monday's game at the LeFevre Family Baseball-Softball Complex.
FORT RECOVERY - It did not take long for Fort Recovery to answer Celina's opening tally.
And Alex Gaerke and Dylan Klenke made sure there would be no rebuttal.
A three-run fourth inning allowed the Indians to erase Celina's 2-0 lead, then a bonus run in the fifth helped Fort Recovery open its baseball season with a 4-2 win over the Bulldogs at the LeFevre Family Baseball-Softball Complex on Monday afternoon.
With the wind making for fly balls to mainly hold up enough for the defense, pitching on both sides was solid.
Gaerke faced the minimum through the first two innings. Luke Maxwell was able to draw a walk in the second, but Indians catcher Brodie Hart picked him off first base with a perfect throw.
Celina starter Tanner Wendel was sharp, sandwiching three strikeouts in the first around a Caden Homan double, then adding a strikeout in the second as the Indians left another runner on base.
The deadlock was snapped in the third. Ohyn May led off the top of the inning for the Bulldogs with a walk, but was thrown out trying to steal. Gaerke added a strikeout of Braylon Parker before BJ Tare reached on an infield single. Brodee Schulte-Arnold, who led off the game with a high fly to left that hung up in the jet stream, put a little more power in his second chance, line-driving a shot that cleared the fence and gave Celina a 2-0 lead.
Celina's Tanner Wendel pitches during Monday's game at Fort Recovery.
Tanner Wendel retired the side in the third, but in the fourth, Homan singled to right and was pulled for pinch-runner Reece LeFevre. Tanner Wendel got two quick strikeouts before Luke Fortkamp singled to left, scoring LeFevre. Hayden Siefring followed by drawing a walk to bring up Ian McCain, who belted a line drive down the left field line, scoring Fortkamp and Siefring to put the Indians in front 3-2.
"Guys responded well," said Fort Recovery coach Kevin Eyink. "They didn't panic or get down at all. We got a guy on, able to steal and Ian comes up with a huge hit down the line."
"When it rains, it pours," said Celina coach John Dorner. "We made several mistakes tonight, (Fort Recovery) did not make many mistakes and deserved to win tonight. Two good teams playing each other, and the team that executes and doesn't make mistakes almost always wins."
Parker relieved Tanner Wendel to start the fifth and gave up a single to Reece Wendel. A wild pitch and stolen base moved the Fort center fielder to third. Colson Post then singled up the middle to make it 4-2.
Alex Gaerke pitched five innings of three-hit baseball to help Fort Recovery beat Celina.
Gaerke retired the side in the fourth, but allowed a single and walk in the bottom of the fifth, but after Tare got into a rundown in an attempt to allow Parker to score, Gaerke fired home to Hart, who applied the tag for the third out.
"Alex had a great start. Maybe one bad pitch (the homer to Schulte-Arnold). Not much you can do about that," said Eyink.
Klenke came in to close out the game in the sixth, allowing just one baserunner to reach on a one-out error before getting the next two batters. Then in the seventh, Klenke closed the door with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
"Dylan threw two shutdown innings to get us out of here," said Eyink.
"Hopefully, we'll learn from that," said Dorner. "We do that, we'll have some future success."
Fort Recovery returns to the field on Thursday as Adams Central crosses the state line for a contest.
Celina continues its opening week of facing Mercer County teams as Marion Local comes to Montgomery Field today, then Parkway travels to Celina on Thursday.
