Fort Loramie High School’s baseball complex offers a classic, late-season, interleague contest on Saturday at 1 p.m. when two of the state’s top clubs in Division IV go head to head. It’s one band of Redskins versus another!
The Fort Loramie Redskins are 14-2 overall and sit atop the Shelby County Athletic League with an 8-0 mark. The St. Henry Redskins from Mercer County are 12-2 on the season heading into Friday’s action and continue to set the pace at 7-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
Both programs have earned great respect from the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association, which ranked SH and FL 8th and 13th, respectively, in the most recent Div. IV poll.
ScoresBroadcast.com is on the air at 12:25 p.m. Jack Kramer and Bryant Billing have the call. Mitch Westerheide, Fort Loramie athletic director and the newly hired boys basketball coach, is a pregame guest.
In trying to handicap this Saturday headliner, you don’t get much help from analyzing games with common opponents. Last week, Fort Loramie tamed Russia, D-IV’s defending state champs, 6-1. St. Henry has thumped seven-time state champ and perennial power D-III Coldwater, 12-2.
Meanwhile, St. Henry has dropped a 6-4 verdict to Russia. Fort Loramie was stymied in the season’s first week by Coldwater, 3-0. Fort Loramie has whipped Minster twice; St. Henry edged the Wildcats, 3-2.
It’s still chilly. But it’s no longer early in the season and the two squads have had the necessary time to gel. And have they ever. If the weather delivers, these talented Redskins will, too. Fort Loramie has won a dozen straight; St. Henry, eight in a row.
As a team, St. Henry is allowing less than two earned runs per game and owns a formidable pitching staff led by junior Devin Delzeith, who sports a miniscule .8 ERA and yields a batting average of only .145 by opponent hitters. He shut down Coldwater early in the month.
These Redskins are also swinging hot bats. Senior Nolan Kunkler is hitting .444; junior Drew Schwieterman, 419; and junior, Hayden Boeckman, .405. Senior Elijah Horstsman is number one in runs scored and owns ten stolen bases. Schwieterman has knocked in 15 runs.
St. Henry has totaled ten runs or more in five MAC triumphs this season.
Fort Loramie has come alive at the plate, too. Senior Collin Lessing is pounding the ball at a .458 clip; senior Max Cotner is at .401. The bottom players in the batting order have been tough outs in recent games. Darren Eilerman and Roger Hoying each cracked a pair of hits in the victory last week over Russia. Redskins have whiffed less than 60 times in 16666666666666 games.
Hurlers junior Maverick Grudich and senior Christian McGee fashion a combined ERA of less than 1.5. Each has registered over a strikeout per inning. FL’s top five pitchers have permitted only 34 bases on balls.
Fort Loramie coach Jeff Sanders has pieced together another superb season by fielding a solid, well-rounded club. Six different Redskins have produced five or more runs batted in, and five different players have scored a half dozen runs or more.
Mike Gast’s St. Henry bunch also lacks a glaring weakness. Fort Loramie’s Saturday opponent has been held to less than five runs in seven innings only twice this season.
The MAC versus the SCAL. Consider placing the safest bet… Hang your hat on the “Redskins” to win, for sure.
