By Eric Maki
Community Post

FORT LORAMIE - The New Bremen Cardinals rode a rollercoaster at the Fort Loramie Baseball Tournament Saturday, losing 3-0 to Triad in their first round game and beating the Fort Loramie Redskins for the second time in a week, 8-1 in the consolation round.

The first game against Triad featured a plethora of walks and strikeouts on both sides as each pitcher, Triad's Tyler Deam and New Bremen's Cory Barlage, worked hard to adjust to the other team. Despite his best attempts, a slightly worn Barlage was replaced by Anthony Mader at the mound at the top of the fifth inning.

"(Barlage) started out strong the first three or four innings he did alright," New Bremen head coach Justin Firks aid. "Then the fifth inning he kind of hit a wall there. He threw six innings last Tuesday; he's only coming out of 3-4 days off. Fortunately he kept us in the game. He's a young kid, he'll come back. Then Anthony Mader came in and threw some good balls and kept us in the ball game."

The first point of the game came courtesy of Brian Yocum at the top of the second, who walked to first and second before a hit by Ryan Thompson past third sent him home.

The final runs of the game came from Deam and Austin Dixon, both of whom walked on balls before two hits let them round home base.

"We had 6 base hits in the game and 11 potential runners. Unfortunately we threw right at them. We had our opportunities, unfortunately we squandered them late," Firks said.
Following their close loss to Triad, the 'Cards were scheduled to play the Covington Buccaneers in the consolation round. However, Covington opted to leave the tournament early so their players could attend prom, so the Fort Loramie Redskins stepped up to the plate for a rematch. And the results weren't too different from their prior match up Sunday, April 15 at Fifth-Third Field in Dayton.

"I think it's just the kids, just playing through the game and not getting let down with the results of the first game," Fricks said of the second-round victory. "It was hot out there. We had some big base hits for some great runs. They had some good hitters and we kept them off balance. It was definitely a good way to keep them off balance."

After two scoreless innings, the Cardinals came into the game with a vengeance scoring four runs at the top of the third for their best inning of the tournament. It all began with Derrick Bruggeman run following a Brian Garmann ball, followed by Barlage stealing third before running home on a Matt McCollum hit. Mader followed on a Wendel at-bat. McCollough ended the runs hitting home plate courtesy of Jared Cox.

Bruggeman followed up with a run at the top of the fourth as did Chris Heitkamp at the top of the fifth inning to give New Bremen a 6-0 lead.

The final score came courtesy of Mader and McCollum for New Bremen and Jared Hoying for Fort Loramie.

"We played two state ranked teams, lost 3-0 to one and won 8-1 against the other. Obviously a split wasn't what we were looking for, but we'll take it," Firks said.