Berlin's long trek through loser's bracket results in Farm B championship

When Berlin 3 was knocked from the winner's bracket of the Holmes County Farm B tournament at Berlin in the second round by Winesburg, the assumption was that they certainly could be at the championship game, but only watching from the stands.

Seven games later, Berlin 3's players found themselves celebrating around home plate of their home field, having come barreling back through the loser's bracket, then topping the same team that put them there twice by scores of 13-11 and 14-12 in extra innings in the championship game on Thursday, June 16, to capture a highly unlikely title.

"The kids started hitting like crazy once we dropped into the loser's bracket, and we just never stopped," said Berlin 3 assistant coach John Kalman, who also acts as the pitcher in the coach-pitch league.

In front of a raucous crowd on both sides of the field, the two teams squared off in Game 1, as Berlin tried to stay alive and Winesburg tried to end the tournament right there. Winesburg scored three in the first courtesy of a two-run single by Shayne Hershberger. Berlin answered right back with three of their own, on rbi singles by Sam Habeger, Scott Coblentz and Tyler Kuhns.

Winesburg plated three more in the second, keyed by hits from Isaiah Miller, Jr. Troyer and Riley Kline. An inning later, Berlin responded by scoring three, two of them on a Habeger double.Habeger had another huge hit in the fifth, when he crushed a second two-run double, to give Berlin a 10-7 lead, but Winesburg responded by plating four in the top of the fifth on consecutive hits from James Beechy, Another double by Hershberger, Tony Yoder, Koby Shetler and Chase Weaver.

However, Berlin took the lead right back when AJ Kandel and Terrel Keim singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Isaac Troyer plated the tying run, then Dylan Miller doubled in the go-ahead run and Kuhns singled in Miller to make it 13-11.

It was three up, three down for Winesburg, and the two teams moved along to the series finale.

In Game two, Berlin began the game scoring one run but leaving the bases loaded. Winesburg answered in the bottom of the inning by scoring three times, mainly courtesy of a Michael Barkman triple and a Hershberger double sandwiched around singles by Kline and James Beechy.

Neither team scored in the second, and Berlin scored three times in the third thanks to singles by Dylan Miller, Kuhns and Habeger, and a double laced by Hans Schlabach. Winesburg answered with two, when Jr. Yoder doubled, scored on a Riley Kline single, who then scampered around the bases and scored on a single by Beechy, to make the score Winesburg 5, Berlin 4 after three.

Berlin only scored one run the next two innings, while Winesburg went to work. plating five runs in the bottom of the fourth. The key hits in the inning belonged to Jared Hochstetler and Morgan Yoder, who doubled in runs, and Isaiah Miller, Kline and Barkman, who all banged out rbi singles to make it a 10-4 game heading into the fifth. Winesburg tacked on one more in that inning, thanks to a triple by Beechy and an rbi single by Hershberger.

But heading into the sixth inning, with their backs to the wall yet one more time, Berlin dug deep and rallied. Will Schlabach tripled to get things started, then consecutive singles by Isaac Troyer, Brett Miller, Dylan Miller, Kuhns and Habeger, who seemed to come up big all night, made it 11-9. After Scott Coblentz popped out, Hans Schlabach came through with an rbi single, then AJ Kandel knocked in the tying run to make it 11-11. Still, Berlin had to hold Winesburg in the bottom, and survived that scary inning by going one-two-three.

In the top half of the seventh, with one out, Isaac Troyer tripled, then rode home on a single by Brett Miller. After a single by Dylan Miller loaded the bases, Winesburg got Kuhns to pop out, which left three on and two out for the player of the night, Sam Habeger. Habeger smoked a shot into center field to plate a pair to give Berlin a 14-11 lead.

"Sam has improved 200 percent this season, and he really picked me up, because I threw him some poor pitches," said Kalman.

But could Berlin's defense hold.

After one out, Kline singled to left, and was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double. That was followed by a single up the middle by Barkman. Beechy grounded into a fielders choice before Hershberger, who had proved to be a tough out all night, singled to make the score 14-12. Tony Yoder singled to put the tying run on first, but Shetler hit a soft liner back to the mound to set off a wild Berlin celebration.

"We played so poorly defensively the first five innings, but the kids really came through when they had to," said head coach Irv Yoder. I really thought it was all over when we got down 11-4, but the kids obviously didn't. They kept battling, just like they did all tournament. Going into that sixth inning, I knew we had the top of our order up, so I knew we could get something going, but that was amazing."

For Berlin the two-game set, Isaac Troyer had seven hits and scored five runs, Brett Miller knocked out six hits and scored five times, Dylan Miller had seven hits, including a perfect 5-for-5 in the championship game, with three runs and four rbi, Tyler Kuhns banged out six hits and Sam Habeger added a two-game high eight hits, including a perfect five-for-five effort in the nightcap, and seven rbi in the two games.

For Winesburg, James Beechy had five hits and scored five times, Shayne Hershberger, Tony Yoder, Michael Barkman and Riley Kline all had five hits, and Isaiah Miller added four.

The game was also filled with some fantastic defensive plays, especially by Winesburg's Shayne Hershberger at third base and Koby Shetler in center field.

Berlin had won their final two loser's bracket games in the same exciting fashion as the finals, churning out a 17-16 nail-biter over Killbuck 2 in the quarterfinals, and earning a 22-14 victory over Millersburg 3 which saw them plate eight runs in the last inning of a tied game.

Tournament director Jerry Shoup was thrilled with the incredible turnout to see many of the games throughout the tournament, but especially for the finals, and he was even more pleased with the tight games down the stretch.

All five of the final games of the tournament were decided in the final inning," said Shoup. You can't ask for much more than that. It was an incredibly exciting night of baseball to end this tournament."