DULUTH—At the beginning of the summer, the Rock Ridge VFW baseball team made it a goal to repeat as District 8 champions and return to the VFW state tournament.
On Tuesday, Post 1172 made good on that goal as they took it to West Duluth early on in their District 8 championship game and never looked back, securing the 8-3 win and a second straight district title.
Spending the entire season chasing that repeat trip, Rock Ridge head coach Paul Coombe said the winning culture developed during last year’s run helped during clutch time this season.
“Winning is contagious,” Coombe said. “You get the first taste of it and it doesn’t go away. If you have the right attitude and kids that are going to put the time in and have fun doing it, then it’s going to catch on. Then it’ll snowball and roll downhill. It rolls faster and faster and we saw that this weekend. It all came together for us.”
With the arm situation looking dicey for Post 1172 after 5 games over the last three days, it was Connor Saxhaug that got the nod to pitch for Rock Ridge. Retiring the first eight batters he faced, Saxhaug helped settle the defending champs down early on and let the offense get to work and build a lead.
After a scoreless first inning from both sides, Rock Ridge manufactured the first run of the game in the top of the second inning. Caz Carlson took a leadoff walk from Whitecaps starter Max Linn. A sacrifice bunt from Saxhaug moved him over to second and Carlson then took third on a fielder’s choice.
With two outs, Rory Scuffy came up to bat and waved Carlson in after a wild pitch from Linn sailed to the backstop. The runner scored and Post 1172 had the early advantage. While the lead was small and the game was still in its early stages, it was clear just from the energy in the dugout that the first run was enough of a spark for Rock Ridge.
“We came here with a good attitude today,” Coombe said. “We came here and the kids wanted to win. They were all about it. They were in 100% and we were taking our chances and doing all of the little things right from start to finish.”
After Saxhaug shut down the four, five and six hitters for West Duluth in the bottom of the second, Post 1172 chased Linn out of the game in the top of the third.
With one out, Aiden Bird took a walk and moved to second when Jake Coombe knocked a single up the right side. A passed ball allowed both runners to advance and the bases were soon loaded up when Carlson drew a walk.
With just one out, Linn couldn’t get out of the jam and issued his third walk of the inning, allowing Bird in to score to make it a 2-0 game. That signaled the end of his time on the mound and Easton Grumdahl took to the hill in relief.
Rock Ridge laid the pressure on Grumdahl immediately. With Jaxson Lamppa at the plate, Coombe (the lead runner) took off for home right when Grumdahl started his pitching motion with Lamppa attempting to lay down the bunt.
While Lamppa didn’t make contact with the ball for the squeeze bunt, West Duluth’s Linn (now at catcher) bobbled the ball and that was enough of an opening for Coombe who slid in for the score, 3-0 Rock Ridge.
“That’s a play you go for in a big moment and you hope it pays off,” Coombe said. “Jake was on third and he’s a fast kid and that little bobble was all it took to get a run in.”
Rock Ride had to make sure they made impressive plays on the defensive side of the ball as well. With two outs in the bottom of the third, Saxhaug let his first runner of the contest on when he gave up a single to Bruno DeCambaliza. Instead of settling for getting the next batter out, Post 1172 managed to pick DeCambaliza off attempting to steal second with the catcher Carlson giving a perfect throw to second baseman Owen Hallin. Hallin put down the tag for the third out, not allowing the Whitecaps a chance to pick up any momentum.”
Rock Ridge continued to tack on runs throughout the game. A one-out walk to Cal Scott got things started in the top of the fourth. Scott stole second and then came around to score when Bird rocketed his first triple of the game, this one to center field, 4-0 Rock Ridge.
West Duluth got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with one run. Saxhaug walked Charlie Hayden with one out. Not long after, the runner stole second and then came into score when Linn singled to right field to cut the deficit to three, 4-1.
But that one run only gave Post 1172 more fire as they hung three on the Whitecaps in the top of the fifth.
Carlson reached to start the inning after being hit by a pitch and quickly made it home when Saxhaug ripped a single up the right gap. Saxhaug took second on the throw and then came around to score himself when Lamppa laid down a bunt and the throw from pitcher to first was off the mark, 6-1.
Lamppa reached safely and moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt from Scuffy. After Hallin struck out for the second out, the inning was extended when Scott reached on an error after the West Duluth second baseman bobbled a grounder.
With runners on the corners, Scott made a break for second base, intentionally getting caught in the pickle while giving Lamppa enough time to score from third, 7-1 Rock Ridge.
After Saxhaug pitched a clean fifth inning, Hayden took over on the mound for West Duluth in the top of the sixth. Rock Ridge tacked on their final run of the game off the new pitcher.
The sequence started with a walk to Bailey and continued with a wild pitch to Bird that let him take second, a wild pitch to Coombe that moved him to third and a bunt attempt by Carlson. Carlson’s bunt was picked up by Hayden, who committed a throwing error that allowed the run in, 8-1.
After a scoreless bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, Saxhaug took to the mound and was just three outs away from securing the win for his team.
The final trio of outs didn’t come easy. After a single to Vinny Udd, a walk to Juri Lobovich and a single to Oden Johnson, the bases were loaded with two outs. One run came in to score when Saxhaug hit batter Kellen Hanson and another was brought in when Brett Lapcinski was walked.
The deficit down to five, 8-3, it looked as if Rock Ridge assistant coach Brad Scott was going to head to the mound to take Saxhaug out of the game but the pitcher waved the coach off and told the dugout that he was going to finish things off himself.
Saxhaug made good on his words and got the next batter Hayden to ground out to the shortstop. Scott fielded the ball and made the easy throw to Lamppa at first base for the final out, securing the district crown for Post 1172.
After the game, Coombe said that Saxhaug’s play and grit in the final inning showed why he was the right pitcher for the job in a championship game.
“He’s a competitor. All these kids out here are competitors. Everybody out here is fighting for a job. Everybody is fighting to get in the game and Connor didn’t want to come out. What are you going to say when a kid says ‘no, I’m not coming out.’
“He pitched a heck of a game and he finished it. We played good defense behind him. It was almost a perfect game from us in terms of doing things right and limiting mistakes.”
On Sunday, Post 1172 suffered their only loss of the tournament, a 3-2 nailbiter to West Duluth, that sent them into the loser’s bracket. After trailing the Whitecaps on Monday 5-1 after just an inning and a half of play, Rock Ridge outscored West Duluth 13-3 over the next 12 and a half innings.
“We went down 5-1 and nobody thought we were winning that. No one thought we were coming back and we did. Today we came ready to play. We scored runs in a lot of different innings, played quite a bit of small ball and we took some liberty on the bases. We were bunting guys over, stealing home; it was the best way to get it done.”
Coombe gave credit to the rest of the coaching staff in Scott, Jeff Marolt, Davis Lamppa and Jamie Lindseth. He said no other group of coaches can compare.
“We’re all on the same page when it comes to how to coach and what to do with the kids. It’s really nice to have a group of real knowledgeable baseball guys around. I’d put them up against any coaching staff in the state. They make me look really good every game when they all go out on the base paths during the game and I sit in the dugout. They’re just phenomenal.”
With many players on the team having experience from last year’s state tournament run, Coombe says there’s no reason the team can’t compete on this new stage when they make their second straight trip to the big dance.
“These guys wanted to hit that goal from the beginning of the year, before we even played our first game. They said let’s do this and buckle down and they played some good baseball. Right now we’re playing good ball and I think we can keep that going a little bit longer.”
For the head coach himself, Coombe hopes the success of the Rock Ridge VFW team can continue to help grow the youth baseball programs at Rock Ridge.
“You gotta eat it all up because it doesn’t happen very often. It’s just amazing. I’m hoping that moving forward, things like this can happen a lot more than it has in the past for Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia. It’s a wonderful thing and, as a coach, I couldn’t be more proud of the kids. This is where you want to get every season.”
The VFW start tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, July 31 in St. Cloud.
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