VIRGINIA—Navigating through rough waters over their last several games, the Rock Ridge baseball team came into Friday’s contest with South Ridge desperate for a win.
From struggles at the plate to defensive miscues, it looks as if the Wolverines found a way to turn things around and play a complete seven innings as they downed the Panthers 8-3 to end the week.
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for for a while,” Wolverines head coach Jamie Lindseth said. “I think we played a really clean game against a good ball club. The only time we got into trouble and they scored, we answered back right away and I thought that was huge for us.
“It’s nice to see us turn things around and it’s nice to see the smiles on everyone. Now we have some confidence and we know we can do this and hopefully stretch this into next week so we can go into the playoffs with some momentum.”
With the game also being Senior Day for the players, Tate Uhan got the start on the bump and went to work in the first few innings. While he gave up a hit and a few walks over the first two innings, it wasn’t enough as he and the rest of the defense shut out the Panthers in the early going.
Rock Ridge turned things up in the bottom of the second to plate their first run. With two outs, Joey Aho took a walk from South Ridge starter Gavin Willeck and was later joined on the bags after Bodi George took a walk.
The lead runner came in to score when Uhan collected his first hit of the day, a single to right. The bases were loaded up after that after Isaac Lindhorst was hit by a pitch but Willeck got the strikeout on Sam Ray to end the threat and limit the damage.
Uhan mowed through the Panthers in the top of the third, picking up his first 1-2-3 inning of the game and gave up just a single and a walk in the top of the fourth to help keep his team in front.
Rock Ridge increased their lead greatly in the bottom of the fourth, starting with a one out single from Bodi George to get things moving. A single up the middle from Uhan and a single to center from Lindhorst loaded up the bases and George came in to score after a wild pitch was delivered to Ray.
Ray took a walk to reload the bases and another run came in when Gunnar George was walked, 3-0. That ended Willeck’s time on the mound as Blake Olson took over on the mound and quickly got the second out.
With two outs, Will Kemp was the next Wolverine to come up big as he dropped a single into shallow center field that allowed two runners to score, putting Rock Ridge up 5-0 after four innings.
“We were able to get the timely hits,” Lindseth said. “First couple innings, we left a lot of guys on but then the next inning we finally got the hit we needed and then we kept going and got the next hit and scored a few more runs.”
The Panthers had their answer in the top of the fifth and took advantage of some free bases from the Wolverines. Parker Morse was hit by a pitch to start the inning. JHe moved to second on an error and then took third on a passed ball. Willeck then took a walk before Uhan was able to get the first out, a flyout to the catcher against Eli Coon.
Christian Pretasky took a walk to load up the bases and the first run came in to score when Austin Olson ripped a single to center, 5-1. That hit ended Uhan’s time on the mound with Lindhorst set to take over.
Lindhorst got Kai Tuominen to fly out to center, letting a run in but getting the second out. Blake Olson then was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and a runner came in to score when Lindhorst walked Kingsley Archambault.
Their four-run lead shrunk to two, the bottom of the fifth was a do-or-die moment for the Wolverines. Thankfully for Lindseth, he was able to watch his team find that response that has been eluding them in recent games.
Aho started the frame with a single to center before moving to second on a fielder’s choice. He moved to third on a wild pitch and Uhan brought him home with an RBI single to left.
The hits kept coming as Lindhorst doubled to left, letting Uhan score to make it 7-3. The Panthers got an easy second out but a single to center from Gunnar George scored another run to put the Wolverines up by five, 8-3.
“We have that inning where we hit a few batters, give up some walks and let them score three runs but then we got out of it and came right back and answered,” Lindseth said. “I thought that was huge. That’s something we’ve not had great success with recently and we came up to the plate and just had some really good at bats in order to separate ourselves again.”
The 8-3 score would hold through the rest of the contest with Lindhorst keeping the Panthers at bat through the final two innings. Overall, Lindseth said he was pleased with both the pitching and defense in his team’s win.
“We put the pressure on them today. We played really defensive and we pitched really well. Aside from that one inning, we were solid and we found ways to get out of trouble.”
Lindseth also had praise for Bodi George, coming through with the bat and scoring an early run for Rock Ridge.
“He had some really strong at bats and was running the bases well. I wanted to make sure I got him a couple innings and it ended up being a really big reason for us playing so well today. He’s been such a good teammate for a really long time so I’m glad he was able to have a day like that on Senior Day.”
Looking at his other seniors in Gunnar George, Harley Mott, Tate Uhan and Isaac Lindhorst—along with Lindseth’s daughter and team manager Julia—the Rock Ridge skipper gave praise to those set to graduate in a short amount of time.
“What a great group of kids. Bodi had that great day. Harley’s that first-year starter that worked his way in and it all came from attitude and work ethic from him. He’s a leader and he has his teammates’ backs.
“Tate is a four-year starter and he’s really come a long way. He pushed through some struggles last year and he’s having a heck of a senior year for it. Gunnar worked his way up after being that No. 9 or 10 guy last year and he took that next step to have a good year in the field. And then Isaac is another one of those guys who was on the bubble and worked his way up. Every day he’s giving us better at bats and he’s worked his way up the lineup.”
With daughter Julia set to graduate, it’ll be the first time in a while that Lindseth hasn’t had a member of his family as part of the team.
“Getting to have my daughter out here has been really good. I had my son playing with me for five years and then my daughter managing for a couple years. It’s been great to have that with them but it’ll be weird to not have that anymore. It’ll be strange to see all my seniors go. They’re a great group of kids.”
Closing out the regular season this week, Rock Ridge travels to Ely on Wednesday and hosts Pine City on Thursday.
SOFTBALL
Ely 19,
Floodwood 4, F/4
ELY—The Ely softball team closed out their regular season with a dominant win, taking down Floodwood 19-4 in four innings.
Zoe MacKenzie got the win in the circle for the Timberwolves, giving up four hits over three innings of work and striking out two.
At the plate, Hannah Penke tallied three hits and six RBIs. Peyton Huntington also had three hits.
Ely (10-5) picked up the No. 6 seed in the upcoming Section 7A Tournament. They’ll host Floodwood again to open the playoffs later this week.
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