VIRGINIA—The Rock Ridge VFW baseball team got the bats swinging, took advantage of the extra bases given to them and got a strong pitching performance out of starter Jake Coombe on Wednesday as Post 1172 picked up the 10-0 over South Ridge in six innings.
Breaking the game open with two big innings in the third and fourth, it didn’t take long for Rock Ridge to build up a nice cushion of runs to ride through the rest of the game. On the mound, Coombe’s efforts made holding a lead easy as he gave up just one hit and walked four in his six innings on the mound.
Post 1172 head coach Paul Coombe praised his pitcher and the team’s work behind him in ensuring a clean game.
“He threw well and he had good defense behind him today and that helps out quite a bit,” Coombe said. “He was pretty efficient today. He didn’t go deep into the order and didn’t draw out any at bats. He didn’t have to throw over 100 pitches today and that’s always going to help us.”
Rock Ridge got the scoring started in the bottom of the first. Owen Hallin reached on a leadoff error and made it to third after Cal Scott moved him on a sacrifice bunt.
An error by the South Ridge catcher on an attempted pickoff let Hallin come in and score to put 1172 on top early.
Coombe shut South Ridge down in order in the second and let up just a walk in the third before his team got to work in the home half of the inning, plating four more runs.
Back at the top of the order, Hallin singled up the left side to start things off and Scott followed that up with his own hit directed at the shortstop. A bunt single from Caz Carlson loaded up the bases and they were cleared immediately after when Aiden Bird launched a triple to deep right field into the corner, 4-0.
Later in the inning with one out, Blake Bailey came up to the plate and knocked a single up the right side, scoring Bird to make it a 5-0 game.
After a quick top of the fourth from Coombe, Rock Ridge got back to work in the bottom of the fourth. Colter Marolt started things off with a single to shallow right field off of South Ridge starter Blake Olson.
Hallin continued his success day, knocking a deep ball to right-center field that managed to get behind both outfielders in the area. Marolt scored easily from first and Hallin turned on the gas for an inside-the-park home run to make it a 7-0.
On the play, Coombe said he wasn’t surprised a player as quick as Hallin could make it all the way around the bases with how well he hit the ball.
“Owen is a competitor,” Coombe said. “He goes and he doesn’t take a day off ever. He’s one of the faster guys on the team. We’ve got a bunch of kids with good speed on the team so if he’s going to hit a gapper like that in this big park, he’s going to have a chance at it almost every single time.”
Post 1172 continued to make things happen offensively with Carlson picking up a double soon after. Bird stepped up to the plate next but South Ridge had seen enough from the starter Olson and then brought in Austin Olson.
The runs kept coming in with Bird reaching on a walk, Carlson scoring another error from the catcher to the third baseman and Bird eventually scoring Coombe knocked a single to center, 9-0.
Coombe walked the first batter he saw in the fifth but Rock Ridge erased the run with a 1-6-3 double play that started with Coombe lunging for a ball hit back near the pitcher’s mound.
After failing to score in the fifth, Post 1172 called game in the sixth. Chauker Hoover reached first after being hit by a pitch, took second when Parker Currie was hit by a pitch and then came around to score with Jaxon Lamppa singling to center, ending the game by mercy rule, 10-0.
While their offensive skills were on full display, Coombe said after the game that he was pleased to see the team’s defensive abilities pick back up after a dip against the Duluth Tropics in a 5-4 loss earlier in the week.
“Down in Duluth we had a couple costly errors that ended up being the difference in the game. Blake [Bailey] pitched for us in that one and he was efficient. He’s a gamer and you know what you’re getting with him every time but the difference for us was the errors. We cleaned that up, had a few more hits today, got some hits and RBIs from the bottom of our order which was very nice to see.”
And with the hits, his team had more chances to run the bases and show off their abilities as well.
“We’ve got guys that know how to run the base paths and know when to take extra bases. If we can do that well, it’ll help us out every time.”
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