Click here to see the State Championship Game Photo Gallery Photos Courtesy: Elizabeth Fisch
Remsen St. Mary’s hopes of an eighth state title were dashed on Friday with a loss to New London by a final score of 8-7.
Things looked great for the Hawks right away. Remsen St. Mary’s led off the game with three extra-base hits and scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Remsen St. Mary’s head coach Dean Harpenau says it was big for his team to win the first couple of innings.
Jaxon Bunkers ripped an RBI double as part of those three extra-base hits. He says it was a shame that inning couldn’t ultimately set the tone for the Hawks.
Things took a turn for the worse in the next few innings. The Hawks allowed two runs in the second and third and four runs in the fourth with three errors sprinkled in there. Coach Harpenau says he wanted to see better execution from his pitching and his defense.
The Hawks got some help after Carter Schorg exited. Cael Ortmann came in and finished the game going three and two-thirds innings and keeping the Tigers off the board. Ortmann says he knew his role out of the pen was to be accurate, and that’s what he did.
Coach Harpenau says he went with Ortmann because of his great showing in Monday’s quarterfinals.
Anyone following this team knew that the Hawks wouldn’t take the game as it was lying down. The Hawks trailed 8-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning. Collin Homan drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, Landon Waldschmitt picked up an RBI hit, but the key at-bat came from Austin Klein. The freshman pinch-hit and ripped an RBI double to deep right-center. Coach Harpenau says Klein has been doing that all season and was motivated to come up big in that spot.
That made the score 8-7 New London heading to the seventh. The Tigers went down in order meaning Remsen St. Mary’s needed one run to keep their season alive. The Hawks got the bases loaded with one out for Alex Schroeder. Schroeder fell behind 0-2 after fouling off a suicide squeeze attempt. The next pitch, he grounded into a 1-2-3 game and season-ending double play. Coach Harpenau says it was just simply unfortunate that that contact couldn’t find a hole somewhere.
The Hawks end this run to the state title game as a state runner-up and finish with an overall record of 35-1. The bright spot amidst the loss for St. Mary’s is that the Hawks graduate one senior starter and two overall in Carter and Brody Schorg. Carter says he’s going to miss taking the field with teammates he’s played the game with for all his life.
The Hawks now turn their focus to the offseason where they will try to get back to this point again. Cael Ortmann says the road back to success in baseball starts with football camp in a couple of weeks.
Coach Harpenau echoed that sentiment saying this one will sting for his guys for a while.
New London wins their first ever state title finishing the year with a record of 31-1.
Click here to see the State Championship Game Photo Gallery Photos Courtesy: Elizabeth Fisch
