DELPHOS – Spring-time high school baseball is at the mercy of the weather; and Wapakoneta and Delphos St. Johns got five innings of good and two innings of drizzle Monday night at Stadium Park.
When all was said and done the Redskins took an 11-1 victory thanks to a strong pitching performance from right-handed Gage Schenk, who was playing basketball two weeks ago.
Schenk went six innings and allowed only three hits while striking out 10 Blue Jay batters in the process of throwing only 76 pitches, 52 for strikes.
“This was Schenk’s first outing after being with us only eight days after basketball,” Wapakoneta coach Jason Brandt said. “His pitch count was good but I took him out after we scored six runs in the seventh.”
Schenk gave up hits to two of the first three hitters he faced and Blue Jay lead-off hitter Seth Linder doubled and came around to score on a single off the bat of catcher Buddy Jackson.
Schenk would settle down and record three straight one-two-three innings and by that time the Redskins had scored five runs to grab a 5-1 lead.
Wapakoneta scored four runs in the top of the third inning against St. Johns ace left-hander Jake Youngpeter, who had set the Redskins down in order the first two innings, thanks to two Delphos errors that were compounded by two wild pitches that allowed runs to score. Nate Schroer (3-for-4, 2 rbi’s), Mitch Apple, and Bubba Miller all recorded hits for the Redskins in the big inning.
“We had some miscues in the field and everything snowballed from there.” Delphos coach Jerry Jackson said.
Wapakoneta exploded for six runs in the top of the seventh inning thanks to a hit batter, two walks, and four hits. The big hit was a bases clearing triple from third baseman Manny Vorhees, who enjoyed a two- for-four game to go along with three runs batted in.
AJ Campos retired the Delphos side in order to close out the game for the Redskins.
“We saw some things in our first two at bats against Youngpeter and our bottom of the order got us going.” Brandt said. “We felt comfortable once we got the lead and Gage had command of his pitches and throws a lot of strikes, he spotted his fastball really well and kept it down today.”
The Blue Jays used four pitchers in the contest and the last two, Josh Warnecke and Troy Elwer, were playing in the state basketball tournament last Thursday.
“They (Warnecke and Elwer) were playing basketball last week,” Jackson said. “We are moving guys around and our lack of practice showed tonight.”
Wapakoneta improves to 2-1 on the early season while Delphos falls to 0-2.
Wapakoneta at Delphos St Johns in baseball on March 27, 2017
photo by DENNIS SAAM for The Lima News
