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St. Henry's Jack Huelsman (4) slides into home as St. Marys' Preston Rupert covers the plate.
ST. MARYS - St. Henry took advantage of a variety of scoring opportunities to hand St. Marys a 12-2 defeat in five innings Monday evening at K.C. Geiger Park.
The Redskins scored twice on passed balls, twice on wild pitches, a sacrifice fly, a pair of two-run singles and a two-run double.
By contrast St. Marys hit safely in every inning, but failed to bunch its offense, resulting in just two runs for its eight hits.
"We executed really well," St. Henry coach Mike Gast said. "We got a couple of bunts down and that's a big part of our offense. We also squared some balls up today. I was really proud of the way we approached the plate today."
"We just couldn't string together a rally," St. Marys coach Adam Graves countered. "Typically, eight or nine hits are going to produce some runs for you. We couldn't get those eight or nine hits consecutively to get back in the game."
St. Marys' Caleb Rohrbach throws the ball to first base from his knees against St. Henry.
The Roughriders suffered their first loss of the season, slipping to 9-1 while the Redskins improved to 10-1.
"To be honest with you, we've kind of gotten away with some games not playing our best," Graves said. "Today, obviously, we didn't play our best. And when you play a very good team like St. Henry, you're not going to get away with it."
The Redskins set the tone with a four spot in the first inning. A one-out walk, a single and two stolen bases put two base runners in scoring position for clean-up hitter Jack Schwieterman, who brought them both home with a single.
Austin Zimmerman reached on an error, stole second and followed Schwieterman across the plate after two pitches got away from the St. Marys catcher and rolled to the backstop.
Preston Rupert started on the mound for the Riders and helped himself out with an RBI single in the bottom of the first.
St. Henry stretched its lead to 6-1 with a two-out rally in the third that saw Austin Kunk plate two runners with a double.
A two-out double by Kasey Gross and Rupert's second run-scoring single closed out the scoring for St. Marys in the third.
A big key to keeping the Riders from a big inning was no freebies.
"We didn't put anybody on. I think maybe walked one and we were clean in the field," Gast said. "So that's big against a good team like St. Marys."
Actually starting pitcher Owen Zimmerman (three innings) and reliever Max Delzeith combined did not walk a batter, scattering eight hits and striking out four.
St. Henry's Owen Zimmerman pitches against St. Marys.
St. Henry started the fourth inning with three infield hits, including two well-placed bunts. All three would end up scoring. One on a sacrifice fly, one on a wild pitch, and one on a single by Austin Zimmerman.
The Skins created the 10-run margin with three more in the fifth. All of which came after the first two batters were retired. Owen Zimmerman's two-run single was the big blow in the inning.
"When we're good at the plate, we're approaching things the right way," Gast said. "We're handling two-strike counts really well and attacking the fastball well."
Schwieterman, Tate Boeckman, Owen Zimmerman and Jack Huelsman all had two hits each for the Redskins. Gross and Rupert each collected two hits for the Riders.
"In the grand scheme you're going to lose at some point during the course of the season," Graves said. "Hopefully the guys see what happens when you don't show up ready to play, and bring the energy, and bring the level of play we're capable of."
St. Henry faces a busy Midwest Athletic Conference schedule this week hosting New Knoxville tonight and Delphos St. John's on Thursday. The Roughriders will look to hang on to their first place standing in the Western Buckeye league with a home game tonight against Defiance and a trip to Wapakoneta on Friday.
