VIRGINIA—As district playoffs approach, the Rock Ridge VFW baseball team looks to be coming into form.
On Monday, Post 1172 played a complete game from start to finish with excellent pitching, strong defense and solid hitting as they defeated visiting Post 137 from West Duluth, 9-0.
On the pitcher’s mound to start for Rock Ridge was Blake Bailey, who went 5.2 innings of no-hit ball to lead things for Post 1172. With that calming presence on the mound, Rock Ridge head coach Paul Coombe said everything fell into place after that.
“You know what you’re getting when Blake pitches. He throws strikes,” Coombe said. “He pitches real well. We played good defense behind him and that just summed up the whole day. The bats were going, we ran the bases well. When you do those things right, good things will happen.”
With Bailey shutting down the Whitecaps in the top of the first, Rock Ridge went to work and plated three in the bottom half of the inning to set the tone early. That started right away with leadoff hitter Owen Hallin, who knocked a triple into the right field corner and was brought home not long after when Cal Scott singled into shallow right, 1-0.
Scott stole his way to second and came in to score not long after when Aiden Bird hit a single near the same spot Scott did. Bird took second on the throw and then later advanced on a wild pitch. After West Duluth starter Alden Marsolek walked Bailey, Caz Carlson came up to the plate and knocked in the lead runner with a single to center 3-0.
Bailey put the visiting team down in order again in the second and then again in the third. New pitcher Brett Lapcinski took over for Post 137 starting in the third inning and Rock Ridge had something to say about that, scoring four runs off the new arm to increase their lead.
Scott started with a walk before Connor Saxhaug reached safely on an error. Lapcinski walked Bird and the bases were loaded up immediately with no outs.
The lead runner came home with Jake Coombe singling to left to make it 4-0. The score then became 6-0 when Bailey singled to right but another run managed to come in as well with an error by the outfielder after the hit came down.
Carlson capped off the scoring run with his second RBI of the day, flying out to centerfield to allow Coombe to tag up and score from third, 7-0.
As Post 1172 continued to build their lead, Bailey kept his head down and made things look easy, striking out two more batters in the fourth as the Whitecaps went down in order again, keeping him at the minimum 12 batters through four innings.
Rock Ridge tacked on another run in the bottom half of the inning, executing a number of plays that they made look easy. Rory Scuffy singled to start the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Colter Marolt, took third when Hallin hit into a fielder’s choice and then came home when Scott singled up the middle, 8-0.
While still sharp in the fifth, Bailey’s perfect game bid came to an end with two down in the inning. Looking mortal for the first time all game, he issued a walk to Vinny Udd to allow his first runner on in four-plus innings. He got out of the inning shortly after.
Post 1172 plated one final run in the bottom of the fifth off of new West Duluth arm Kallen Blix. With one out, Blix walked Bailey and Carlson and then each runner moved over on a sacrifice bunt from Jaxon Lamppa.
A walk to Scuffy loaded the bases with two outs, bringing Marolt to the plate. Marolt got the hit when called upon and singled on a grounder to third, scoring the lead runner, 9-0.
Bailey started the sixth inning but didn’t see the end of it, getting two quick outs but then issuing back-to-back walks to Cole Harshman and Kellen Hanson. Coombe was tasked with getting the final four outs for Rock Ridge and got the first one with ease, striking out JoJo Ohman to end the sixth.
Post 1172 didn’t score again in the contest but threatened in the home half of the sixth. Owen Hallin singled up the middle and pinch hitter Chaulker Hoover was hit by a pitch but nothing crossed home plate as the game moved into the seventh.
From there, Coombe got two easy outs but then gave up his team’s only hit on the day when Marsolek singled into left. The game ended shortly after with Udd flying out to the left fielder.
With Jake Coombe taking care of the final four outs combining with Bailey’s 5.2 innings of strong work, coach Paul Coombe said it was about as good as he could have asked from his pitching staff as the team ramps up ahead of tournament time.
“Jake came in and threw strikes and we fielded some balls. If your pitchers can throw strikes, we should be able to play defense. With Blake before, Blake was efficient. He did not throw a lot of pitches which is kind of his M.O. He’s efficient and having a really nice outing from both guys is a big positive for us as we get ready for districts.”
On the offensive side of things, Coombe said the team did what they needed to do to keep the game out of reach.
“We kind of got hits from everywhere today. Everyone was in the game, cheering everyone on. We had a pinch hitter come in and even he got on base. It came from everywhere in the order.”
With just one more game before this weekend’s district tournament in Duluth, Coombe says he likes his team’s chances of repeating as champs and heading back down to state.
“I think we like where we’re at. It’s anyone’s game. Anybody can beat anybody down there and that’s why you play the game but if we go in and have a nice outing like we did today throughout the whole tournament, then we should be fine.”
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