VIRGINIA — Through four innings, it looked as if the Rock Ridge VFW baseball team was well on their way to victory, leading the visiting Superior Junior Legion team 10-2.
But suddenly, the Blues put up six runs in the fifth inning and made a game out of things.
In the end, Post 1172 was able to hold off the late surge from Superior and added a few more insurance runs along the way to come out with the 14-9 win. After the game, Rock Ridge head coach Paul Coombe said it wasn’t the easiest path to the win, but he was pleased with the way his team bounced back after the one poor inning.
“That’s not the optimal day you want to have in the park but we battled back. At the end of the day, we’re happy with the way we fought to get the win. You take the one inning away then we played pretty decent the rest of the way. We made a few mistakes here and there that we’ll have to clean up before the playoffs.”
While it was Rock Ridge that got the win, it was Superior that started off on top, scoring two runs in the top of the first.
Anthont Cabre started things off with a single to shallow center field off of Post 1172 starter Connor Saxhaug. Exxl Kavajecz reached on a ball four-wild pitch that moved Cabre to third. Cabre then came home on an error from the Rock Ridge infield with the second run scoring not long after on an RBI sacrifice by Landon Sundstrom, 2-0.
Rock Ridge cut the lead when they plated one in the bottom of the first. Superior starter Versii Kavajecz walked Owen Hallin to start things off. Hallin stole his way to second and then stole third on a wild pitch, setting up Saxhaug for the RBI sacrifice, 2-1.
Saxhaug put the Blues down in order in the top of the second and Rock Ridge got back to work offensively in the bottom half of the inning. Jake Coombe reached leading off with a single to left field, stole second, moved to third on a flyout from Blake Bailey and then came home to score on a wild pitch delivered to Caz Carlson.
Carlson followed that up with a single to left. He then moved all the way to third when an attempted pickoff from the pitcher went awry. Jaxon Lamppa brought Carlson home not long after with a sacrifice fly to left field, 3-2 Rock Ridge.
Saxhaug stayed in top form in the third, retiring three Superior batters in succession and Post 1172 plated two more runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Back-to-back singles from Colter Marolt and Hallin started things off with Saxhaug knocking one run in thanks to an RBI double to left field. Aiden Bird brought the next runner in with an RBI sacrifice to make it 5-2.
Bird took over on the hill for Rock Ridge starting in the fourth. Despite giving up a pair of singles, he kept the Blues off the scoreboard for the time being with a pair of strikeouts.
Mason Chell then took over for Superior on the mound and his day was off to a rough start with Blake Bailey reaching on an infield single just before Carlson reached safely on an infield error.
With runners on the corners, an RBI bunt single from Lamppa scored a runner. Another run came home on a wild pitch delivered to Marolt and then one more made it to home on the RBI sacrifice from Marolt, 8-2.
The big inning continued with Hallin reaching on a walk, Cal Scott reaching on a bunt and then taking third on an error that allowed Hallin to score. A wild pitch shortly after let Scottin for free, 10-2.
Superior found their response in the top of the starting against the new pitcher Scott. After getting the quick first out, Scott hit back-to-back Blues players and then delivered a walk to Mike Fiegle to load up the bases.
An RBI single from Sundstrom scored a run and another came in on a wild pitch to Sevrin Johnson, 10-4.
Carlson took over for Scott from there but a bases-clearing triple from Chell cut the deficit from six to three, 10-7. An error later in the inning brought in one more runner for Superior, quickly making it a two-run game heading into the bottom of the fifth.
But despite the troubled waters Post 1172 came out in the clear and put up three runs in the bottom of the fifth to try and right the ship.
Bird started the frame knocking a triple to the right-center field fence and came home an out later when Bailey knocked an RBI single.
Carlson singled to left and Lamppa was hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Two more runs were able to score when Rory Scuffy hit into a fielder’s choice and the attempted double play throw to first was off the mark, 13-8.
Getting that big response from his team, Coombe said after the game that his players not getting down on themselves has been key to their success this season.
“These kids just never let anything bother them. They’re always trying to pick their teammates up. The dugout always has a good atmosphere. If you make a mistake or your buddy makes a mistake, someone is always there to pick them back up and I think that’s what we did today.”
Each team plated one more run before the game was over, giving the win to Post 1172, 14-9.
Mixing his lineup around and putting players in different positions, Coombe said the last regular season game was a good way to see what Rock Ridge has heading into district layoffs.
“We were trying different kids at different spots. We were trying to get some last minute work in for some guys on the mound too. Maybe all that made it a bit more challenging for us but it was good to get those looks in and see those different situations before playoffs.”
With districts fast approaching this weekend, Coombe says the team will need to clean a few things up if they hope to make a deep run.
“We’re going to have to play good defense, get our bats going and throw strikes if we want to get as far as we can. We definitely made some mistakes today so it’s going to be about how well we can clean those up.”
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