{"id":14729,"date":"2024-04-15T05:45:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T09:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=14729"},"modified":"2024-04-15T05:45:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T09:45:25","slug":"4-run-rally-earns-stars-split-of-doubleheader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/15\/4-run-rally-earns-stars-split-of-doubleheader\/","title":{"rendered":"4-run rally earns Stars split of doubleheader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BERNE – The day was seemingly not going their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Starfires and coach Brad Buckingham had a plan heading into Saturday’s doubleheader with Fort Recovery with a pitching strategy and an approach to capture two wins against their state line rivals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Starfire infield shows concern and discusses a new plan as coaches and the trainer attend to their injured teammate. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That plan had to be tossed into the strong afternoon wind after Corey Lenington went crashing into the chainlink fence down the right field line in the top of the fifth inning, unable to catch a lazy pop fly after trapping his leg underneath his body. Lenington hit the fence hard enough to reposition a portion of it and bow it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lenington’s diving effort and subsequent injury required Buckingham to take Derek Weaver off the mound, where he had held Fort Recovery to just two hits and no runs. Weaver slid over to replace Lenington at first and Owen Wanner went from shortstop to the pitching mound, while Derek McKean went to the other side of second base at short. Craig Landis took Lenington’s spot in the lineup and played second base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit shaken by the sudden change in game plan, the Starfires yielded an RBI single and the lead to the visitors on the very next pitch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Corey Lenington is helped out of the dugout after a nasty collision with the fence in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader with Fort Recovery. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wanner dusted himself off and got out of the jam with a strikeout and in the bottom of the sixth, the Starfires rallied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Derek McKean drew a walk and Owen Wanner used the wind to his advantage, smashing the ball towards the tennis courts in left to give the Stars the 2-1 lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams were not done yet, though, after two quick outs following the Wanner bomb. Weaver and Manny Juarez singled and Brendon Sprunger knocked them both in after some good baserunning to make it 4-1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Juarez leads off from first after singling in the Starfire rally in the bottom of the sixth inning. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That was more than enough for Wanner, who struck out two in the final inning and picked up the win on a foul ball that he caught himself to wrap up game one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weaver and Sprunger each had two hits for the Stars, while all four runs came off the two big hits by Owen Wanner and Brendon Sprunger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owen struck out five across his 2.1 innings and allowed just one hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Owen Wanner pitched a total of 3.1 innings in Saturday’s doubleheader, allowing two hits and striking out seven. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the late game, Jax Wanner got the start on the improvised plan for coach Buckingham. He pitched into the fourth inning and was charged with three runs. Owen Wanner relieved him and got all three outs in the fourth inning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down 4-1 entering the fifth inning, the Starfires traded single runs with Fort Recovery in the fifth and sixth but were unable to string together enough hits to rally like they had in the afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams had just five hits in game two, striking out 12 times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Buckingham’s team faces a busy schedule this week as the weather warms up, with contests slated every day this week except Tuesday. The Starfires will not return home until Friday when they host Coldwater. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com BERNE – The day was seemingly not going their way. The Starfires and coach Brad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[44,15,28,26],"class_list":["post-14729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-baseball","tag-featured","tag-southadams","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DSC_0105-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1696&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}