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Versailles
senior Zack Neikamp delivers a pitch recently against
Northridge. Neikamp was not at his best Wednesday against Miami East
but the Tigers beat the Vikings in walk-off fashion, 4-3 to advance to
the district finals. CNO File Photo
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Versailles gets
Miami East monkey off its back
Tigers win in dramatic fashion
Arcanum over Tri-Village
By George Starks
TIPP CITY- For six innings, the Versailles Tiger offense was
non-existent. The pitching and defense was shaky at best.
Three errors in the field and a sub par performance from senior Zack
Neikamp on the mound had help the Tigers put themselves in a hole that
didn’t look like they would crawl out of.
Then things got interesting
Trailing 3-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh, things looked
bleak but the party was about to begin. A single off the bat of Zack
Neikamp, set the table for an unlikely hero... Dominic Richard.
Richard took a 0-1 pitch deep over the centerfield fence off East
starter Luke Cook. That was followed by a walk to Damien Richard.
With two on and two out, Mike Rutschilling singled home the winning
run. The Tigers, staring at the jaws of defeat had just gotten a 4-3,
walk-off victory.
“Zack got a good pitch to hit and got that infield single. Zack is not
exactly fleet of foot but he was able to beat it out,” said Versailles
coach Mitch Hoying. “Dominic got a good pitch to hit and I honestly
thought it was going to hit off the base of the wall and we were going
to have a guy on third. I never expected to see that ball clear the
fence. At that point, it was a tie game with nobody out. At that point,
we are back to playing ball again.”
When Rutschilling hit the game winner, Hoying could see what happened
to the Vikes leftfielder could have happened to him as well.
“In defense of their fielder, that was a tough sun out there today,”
said Hoying. “It was getting worse with every inning and you heart goes
out when it ends like that. Mike laid that ball out and it was played
on one hop. I thought it was going to be a bang-banger at the plate but
it wasn’t.”
With Richard struggling on the hill, Hoying went to Ethan Bruns in
relief. Bruns shut the Vikings down.
“Ethan did a good job coming in,” Hoying said. “Both him and Zack are
two pitch pitchers and I probably should have gotten Ethan in there
earlier so that is something I need to work on for myself.”
Versailles will play Middletown Fenwick Friday at 5 p.m. at Kenton
Ridge.
Arcanum
survives scare from T-V
COVINGTON - For the third time this season, Arcanum and Tri-Village
squared off on the diamond. This time for a sectional title and the
right to play in the district.
Give the nod to the Trojans. Arcanum held on to beat the Patriots, 2-1.
Arcanum will play at Newton on Friday in a 5 p.m. start against Lehman
Catholic.
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