Late heroics gives Bath win over St. Henry in baseball

BATH TOWNSHIP - One day after tournament brackets were set and seeds were handed out for the baseball sectional tournament, Bath felt like it had something to prove.

According to pitcher Brandon Mohr, despite entering the seeding process at 10-9, the Wildcats were overlooked and underestimated.

Coldwater (17-4) and Parkway (17-3) were the seeded teams in the Division III sectional at Coldwater. Bath's opponent Monday night, St. Henry (17-4) was not seeded.

Bath got win No. 11 by battling back with a monster sixth inning to take out the Redskins, 8-5, in what should have been a meaningless non-league game.

St. Henry, which did not get Bath coach Tony Roob's vote for a seed, threw its ace, Nick Bruns.

"They thought they were come out here, throw their ace and get us. It gave us more motivation to beat them," Mohr said. "They thought we were pushovers."

Zach Sterling hit a two-run homer in the first inning and added another RBI in the decisive sixth. He noticed Bruns, who came into the game 3-1 with 46 strikeouts and a 1.24 ERA, tiring out.

Bruns took the loss, giving up seven hits and seven runs in five innings.

"Our guys were kind of scared because he is their number one," Sterling said. "But as the game went on, he got tired. We knew if we kept in there, stayed in the batter's box, we would hit the ball."

The Wildcats tied the game in the bottom of the fifth after St. Henry scored twice in the top to take a 4-3 lead. Matt Loudon led off the home portion with a double and went to third on the next batter. Loudon emptied the base when he stole home, sliding head-first under the tag of catcher Jason Wourms.

St. Henry threatened in the top of the sixth, and despite having runners on second and third base with one out, the Redskins grounded out to second and third.

In the home sixth, Matt McKinney and Kevin Korkate led off with singles to right. Mohr drove them in with a double and soon scored himself, when Ben Wierman took a 2-0 pitch to deep right for a double.

In all, the Wildcats had five extra-base hits.

"We had given them the weekend off and I wasn't sure how they were going to bounce back. They looked a little rusty in batting practice, and I was kind of nervous that I made a faux pas," Roob said. "Obviously, I'm very happy with the way we swung the bats tonight."

It's a good thing the bats were cooking for Bath, because Mohr and Scott Goedde struggled with their control on the mound. Mohr took the win after going five innings on three-hit, four-run ball. However, he walked seven.

Goedde worked the final two innings, surrendering only one hit, but walking one and hitting the first two batters of the seventh.

"I went out to the mound and said, ‘I don't care if we lose tonight. I cannot take anymore walks,'" Roob said of a seventh-inning visit. "I told him just to throw strikes and let our kids help you."

After the brackets were set for the Division III sectional at Coldwater, where Bath and St. Henry play on opposite sides, Roob commented that this is the time when he expects to see improvement from his squad.

At least offensively and defensively, Roob got what he wanted. "This is a confidence-booster," he said.