Musketeers walk-off winners in home finale

FT. JENNINGS – Reminiscent of a heavyweight prize fight the Fort Jennings Musketeers landed the final blow in their last at bat to end Friday evenings non-conference tilt with Spencerville and down the visiting Bearcats 10-9.

Tied 9-9 in the bottom of the seventh inning senior Zach Schulte slapped a Cody Bockey one out pitch into the outfield for his second hit of the game to give his squad a base runner. Down 0-2 Jon Grote joined Schulte on the bases with a single of his own to give the Musketeers a pair of runners.

Evan Hoersten appeared to give Fort Jennings the victory on a ball lined toward the right centerfield gap but found himself instead as the second out of the inning on a highlight level jumping snag from Bearcat infielder Emerson Layman.

Down to their final strike of the inning the Musketeers Jake Wiechart grounded a 2-2 pitch off the end of his bat forced Bockey off the mound and into a decision to attempt to throw to first to get the runner. Bockey’s throw off of a softly dribbled ball reached and dropped from the glove of Carter Layman who was forced to throw home but was just late in his attempt to keep Hoersten from scoring to give the Musketeers the walk-off victory as he slid in behind the attempted tag.

Spencerville opened the contest with a 2-0 lead in the top of the first frame thanks to a trio of Fort Jennings errors that allowed Tyler Koenig and Emerson Layman to score against starter Aidan Grothouse.

Fort Jennings took back one run in the bottom of the same inning on singles by Grothouse and Carson Gilchriest but were unable to tie the game on a pair of outs with two on against Spencerville starting pitcher Evan Osting.

After holding the Bearcats in check in the second inning the Musketeers struck for a four spot and a 6-2 lead by utilizing a walk to Eli Brown and a pair of doubles run scoring back to back doubles by Zach Schulte and Jon Grote that plated three of the four runs in the inning.

Tyler Koenig helped Spencerville cut the lead to 5-3 in the top of the third inning as he reached on a throwing error and was quickly brought in after stealing a base on an RBI single by Jack Cox, but watched as the Musketeers moved their lead back to four at 6-3 in the bottom half of the frame on a bases loaded walk that scored Eli Brown.

Singles by Koenig and Layman again gave the visitors runners in the top of the fifth and again provided the Bearcats a quick marker on an RBI single by the latter to trim the lead to 6-4. Following a walk to Cox and an RBI single by Carter Ringwald Grothouse found his time on the mound had come to an end with a pair still on base.

Carson Gilchriest flipped positions at second base with Grothouse and allowed an RBI double as part of a Spencerville rally that included a wild pitch as well, the Bearcats eventually took a 7-6 lead before a pair of runners were caught in the same run down play near third base to bring the inning to a conclusion.

Spencerville added two more runs in the sixth inning to extend their lead to 9-6 and chased Gilchriest from the game in favor of Bryce Gasser who would not surrender a run nor a hit the rest of the way.

Jack Cox walked a pair of Fort Jennings runners to begin the bottom half of the sixth and was replaced by Layne Wood for Spencerville who himself handed out three of the Bearcats 13 walks on the day as part of a three run rally against he and his own replacement Cody Bockey to send the game tied into the seventh.

Though the Bearcats worked the bases loaded against Bryce Gasser in the seventh they were unable to push across a run before the inning ended on a line out by Wood to shortstop Zach Schulte. Gasser earned the win for Fort Jennings as he worked 1.2 innings allowing no runs or hits while striking out and walking one each.

Spencerville (4-19) begins their tournament run on Tuesday evening at 5:00 P.M. when they travel to Lima to battle the Perry Commodores. Cody Bockey was tagged with the loss as he surrendered a run on three hits on 24 pitches in 1.1 innings of work.

“This was a tough way to lose tonight. We just gave them too many free passes and when you give a team 13 free bases they will eventually capitalize. I liked how we battled but we just didn’t finish tonight. We have to have a short memory with tournament play coming on Tuesday” said Bearcat mentor Matt Thompson.

Fort Jennings improves to 5-17 with their senior day victory and will begin their postseason run on Tuesday when they travel to Pandora for the second time this season to battle the Rockets at 5:00 P.M.

Musketeers coach Matt Dube said of his team “I’m happy with the way my guys battled the whole way through the game. It wasn’t pretty but we will take the win!”