TONTOGANY — Otsego baseball had a successful spring trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last week, winning three of four games.
That meant little to Otsego coach Chase Welker after visiting Maumee defeated Otsego, 7-1, in both teams’ Northern Buckeye Conference opener on Tuesday.
“That doesn’t mean anything if you can’t win games in the league,” Welker said. “Those non-conference games, it is nice to get those, but these are the ones that matter. We didn’t really show up today.”
The Knights fell to 7-2. On their spring trip Otsego defeated Harbor Creek (4-0), Abbeville (10-4) and Bloomfield (7-3), but lost to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, 10-3.
But Maumee’s starting pitcher, southpaw Max Biernaski, pitched five innings of no-hit baseball and did not allow an earned run, striking out six and walking four.
His curve ball had solid movement from outside to across the plate for right-handed batters, and it may have even gotten a little help from a strong wind out of the west.
“He’s got that prototypical lefty hook and its tough to hit, especially when he’s locating his fastball and he’s working ahead in the count,” Maumee coach Todd Ery said. “It’s a tough pitch to hit when it’s going, so that was his big weapon today that kept them off balance for sure.”
Against Biernaski, only two Knights were able to hit the ball out of the infield, and both were caught by Maumee center fielder Chase Maulucci. Besides the movement and the wind, Welker thought an inconsistent strike zone may have confused his batters even more.
“It was tough with the zone kind of moving all over the place the entire game,” Welker said. “It wasn’t real consistent, so my guys struggled with what to swing at because the zone was incredibly inconsistent all night.”
Otsego did score its only run when Biernaski was on the mound, but it was unearned. Two consecutive left-handed batters, Cohen Feehan and Colin Wendt, led off the third inning by reaching on walks.
Otsego sophomore Easton Jeremy’s sacrifice bunt sent Feehan to third and Wendt to second, and Feehan scored when Maumee catcher C.J. Lepper’s throw got past third baseman Jack Dauer trying to pick off Feehan. Feehan took advantage and scored.
However, by that time Maumee had already put up four runs, and continued to add on, scoring in every inning except the fifth and seventh.
Biernaski left the game after five innings, and the Knights quickly took advantage. Tyler O’Brian hit a single up the middle off reliever Lane Franklin to lead off the sixth inning for the Knights’ first hit. Bodde Simon also had a base hit in the sixth, but both were stranded.
For Maumee, Ben Kubicz was 2-for-5 with a stolen base and RBI, Maulucci was 2-for-4 with a double, stolen base and scored three runs, and Kain Jackson was 2-for-2 with a walk, run, sacrifice, and RBI.
Dauer had a base hit, RBI, and walked twice, Biernaski hit a double, scored a run and had an RBI, Spencer Schwab had a base hit, RBI, and scored, Austin Dwyer had a base hit, sacrifice and stolen base, and Carter Koepfler reached on an error and scored for the Panthers.
Simon started on the mound for Otsego, taking the loss, and Wendt pitched the final three innings in relief. Combined, they struck out seven, walked two, allowed 11 hits and only four of the seven runs scored were earned.
Maumee (4-3 overall), formerly longtime members of the Northern Lakes League, became members of the NBC this school year, so this was their first NBC baseball game ever.
“Otsego is a good baseball team so it’s nice to come out and get a win early,” Ery said. “We’ve got a tough week ahead of us so it was nice to get the first one under our belts.”
Maumee was in Myrtle Beach at the same time Otsego was there but the Panthers did not fare as well, losing twice.
“It was a tough transition coming from down south last week, playing four games in four days, but the guys came out and played really fundamental baseball early on,” Ery said.
