COLUMBUS – Wapakoneta pitcher Gage Schenk admitted he sneaked a few looks at the radar gun on the scoreboard behind him at Huntington Park during his three-hit masterpiece in the Redskins’ 6-1 win over Circleville in a Division II baseball state semifinal on Friday.
“I peeked at it a few times,” Schenk said after striking out 10, walking one and being unfazed by a long rain delay during the third inning.
Wapakoneta (24-1) had no need to look back, though, after scoring five runs in the bottom of the third inning – three before rain stopped the game and two more after it ended. Once the Redskins got the big lead, Circleville (19-11) was not a threat.
Wapakoneta will play Dayton Chaminade-Julienne (23-5) in the Division II state championship at 7 p.m. at Huntington Park Saturday. Chaminade-Julienne defeated Tallmadge 2-1 in the second game.
While Schenk was a power pitcher, topping out at 89 miles an hour and hitting 88 on several other pitches, it was a version of small ball so small that it almost could have been called miniature ball that ignited Wapakoneta’s game-changing rally.
Not one, not two, but the first three Wapakoneta batters in the third inning bunted for hits.
A.J. Campos started it with a bunt to the right side. The next batter, Jett Makar, put one in almost the same spot with the same result. Then Joel Roediger, who was attempting to sacrifice, rolled another almost-perfect bunt down the third base line to load the bases.
Don Goodes’ single scored the first run of the game and Wyatt Moyler, who had three RBI in the game, singled in two runs for a 3-0 lead.
A bases-loaded walk to Bubba Miller pushed the lead to 4-0 and a sacrifice fly by Schenk made it 5-0.
“Strike first, that’s the way we’re going to do it,” Moyler said.
Four of the first six outs for Wapakoneta were fly ball outs and the first inning ended with a double play.
But the decision to try something different and put down a bunt belonged to Campos, not the coaching staff, Wapakoneta coach Jason Brandt said.
“A.J.did the bunt on his own. That was huge,” Brandt said. “With Jett coming up we decided to bunt him (Campos) over and Jett put it in a great spot where nobody could field it. And then Joel threw a great bunt down.
“The first one was on A.J. And the next two were on us. It was great execution,” Brandt said.
“I just thought we should have been a little more patient at times because they weren’t going to blow anything by us. They were upper 70s (miles an hour) at best. We were chasing some off-speed pitches that we normally don’t because I think we were so anxious,” he said about Wapakoneta’s first two innings on offense. “But we calmed down a little bit and went from there.”
Having Schenk on the mound was also a calming influence. Circleville had only one hit against him in the first six innings before getting its only run on two hits and an error in the seventh inning.
“I’ve got a great defense, a great catcher behind the plate and an extremely talented offense. So I knew all I had to do was throw strikes,” Schenk said.
“I was feeling good, especially in the beginning. That rain delay was kind of frustrating because I was on a roll. I just had to go back there (under the grandstand) and stay loose. Once I got back on the mound and got a few pitches I was feeling it again.
“There was no question in my mind. I wanted the ball and I was going out there again. They’d have had to pull me off the mound,” he said.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
