ACME: St. Marys whips Wapak

June 18, 2011

ST. MARYS — It was a painful night Friday for the Wapakoneta ACME baseball team.
The insult? A 10-0 five-inning run rule loss to rival St. Marys at K.C. Geiger Park in St. Marys.
The injuries? Those belong to second baseman Alex Koch and shortstop Josh Apple.
A fired-up St. Marys squad placed the first blemish on Wapak’s formerly perfect 9-0 record with a dominating performance, pounding out 10 hits and taking advantage of every Wapak miscue for the win.
“I know they were psyched to play,” St. Marys coach Alan Huber said. “We all knew that. We were definitely ready to play, excited for the opportunity. ... Any chance you get to come away with a win against Wapak, you’ve gotta be pretty happy.”
Wapak didn’t just get beat up on the scoreboard. Apple suffered a deep cut on his throwing hand after getting spiked while defending on a pick-off play at second base in St. Marys’ six-run fourth inning.
Then in the top of the fifth, St. Marys starting pitcher Brad Sawmiller hit Koch in the back of the head on a 2-0 pitch.
Koch needed a few moments to collect himself before Wapak coach Willie Sammetinger replaced him with pinch runner Keaton Zwiebel.
“I think it rung his bell a little bit,” Sammetinger said. “But he’s fine. I wasn’t taking any chances with a 9-0 lead. Get him out of there and get another kid in the lineup.”
St. Marys took that 9-0 lead with three runs in the third and six more in the fourth as it sent 11 batters to the plate.
Kalobb Dodson had a two-run single in the fourth and Jarrett Taylor rounded out the inning with a two-run double.
Marshall Gerlach (2-1) started for Wapak and struggled to throw strikes. He was charged with eight runs, seven earned.
“In fairness to Marshall, Marshall struggled with that mound,” Sammetinger said. “There’s a big hole out there right where he stepped. And he just couldn’t get comfortable landing. He was either wild high or in the dirt.”
St. Marys added a run in the fifth to complete the run-rule win.
“Take nothing away from St. Marys. You hit the ball like that, you deserve to win,” Sammetinger said. “We made three errors, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. And all five of those guys scored. When you give them free passes like that, good things are not going to happen.
“We were probably getting a little cocky, a little over-confident. This doesn’t hurt us. They’ve got to come to Wapak yet.”
The two teams will meet again on June 27 at Wapakoneta High School.
Wapak’s next game is today at noon at New Bremen.