For the second year in a row, Remsen St. Mary’s baseball will compete for a Class 1A title in the championship game. The Hawks beat Lynnville-Sully in the semifinals on Wednesday by a score of 1-0 to get to Friday’s title game.
That final score means that the game was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel. Both pitchers were locked and loaded throughout the game including St. Mary’s senior Cael Ortmann who struck out nine with five hits in working the shutout. Head Coach Dean Harpenau says the Hawks utilized Ortmann differently this season allowing him to be at his healthiest at the state tournament.
With nine strikeouts, Ortmann was deceiving hitters left and right. He says that was because all of his pitches have some life to them.
Landon Waldschmitt caught Ortmann’s shutout for the Hawks. He says the movement on Ortmann’s pitches does not just fool hitters, sometimes, he finds himself fooled by the movement.
Ortmann was not always in pristine scenarios in his shutout. Lynnville-Sully left a total of eight runners on base in the game proving they had plenty of opportunities to score. Ortmann says, when he got into trouble, his defense had his back.
Sporting a dirt-stained jersey, Jaxon Bunkers says he and Alex Schroeder do whatever they can to back up Ortmann and all Hawk pitchers.
On the offensive side, St. Mary’s only run came in the second inning when Collin Homan led off the inning with a double and was scored by a Landon Waldschmitt double. Coach Harpenau says the Hawks went into their bag of tricks to once again take advantage of a scoring opportunity.
Waldschmitt says he was looking fastball on the first pitch. He got it, and he did not miss it.
With the win, Remsen St. Mary’s advances to their second championship game in a row and will face off with Lisbon for the 1A crown. Coach Harpenau says the first goal was to get to the title game. He says at that point anything can happen.
To be prepared, Bunkers says the Hawks will get a scout in to put together the game plan for success.
Lisbon and Remsen St. Mary’s will square off at noon on Friday at Merchants Park in Carroll. You can listen to the game on KLEM with pregame coverage beginning at 11:45 AM.
