SPORTS

Ridgewood falls to Wheelersburg in regional semifinal

Cameron Teague Robinson
Reporter

CHILLICOTHE – Two second inning errors, eventually doomed the Ridgewood baseball team, as it fell 5-0 to Wheelersburg, in a Division III regional semifinal game Thursday.

The second inning started with General's pitcher Caleb Tingle walking Pirate designated hitter Kyle Jenkins. The next batter, Kyle Davis, singled and moved Jenkins to third, but a wild throw by shortstop Braeden Smith allowed Jenkins to come home uncontested, and move Davis to third.

Tingle got the next batter to ground out, but then a passed ball allowed Davis to come in and score.

"I think we gave them too many chances early on. We didn't play a game we needed to play in order to move on," head coach Chad Lahna said. "Against a pitcher like Wade (Martin) that's tough to overcome."

Those two second errors led to an early 2-0 deficit for the Generals, who could not get anything going at the plate to make up for their mistakes in the field.

Part of the problem was Wheelersburg pitcher Wade Martin, who gave up only two hits, and tallied 12 strikeouts, while retiring 13 batters in a row at one point.

"We are not an offensive juggernaut by any stretch of the imagination. We have to make sure we put hits together," Lahna said. "I think early on we were way to over aggressive. We were swinging at pitches that were out of the zone and he is putting us in holes. Against him, when he has the off-speed that he can put wherever he wants, you're putting yourself in a bind."

Senior Alex Croston said Martin wasn't difficult, but they just "weren't on it."

"Our mindsets wasn't on hitting the ball. We were all behind it," Croston said. "We just didn't catch on."

While the Generals did get in an early hole, it wasn't until the fifth inning that the Pirates started piling on insurance runs.

In those two innings, where the Pirates did not score, the Generals couldn't get the bat on the ball. Martin recorded seven straight strikeouts and seemed to get more comfortable with every pitch he threw.

"A hit here and there or a double wherever and it's a whole new ball game," Lahna said. "(Martin) got in a groove there and I told our guys 'remain patient, don't go up and try to do too much and just try to work the count.' I don't think we did a very good job of that today and I think it cost us in the end."

While the Generals struggled to put the bat on the ball, in the fifth inning, the Pirates added some insurance. After two back-to-back walks by Tingle, a wild pitch and a fielder's choice, there were runners on first and third with one out. Then another passed ball came back to hurt the Generals, as the Pirates capitalized, and scored another run.

After an infield single, coach Lahna came to the mound, and took Tingle out for Smith. One last fielder's choice that inning, allowed the Pirates to push the lead to 4-0 in the fifth.

The Pirates would add another run in the sixth.

"Our kids never quit. That's one thing about our kids, that we can always say is they never quit," Lahna said. "They understood that against a pitcher of that caliber it's going to be difficult to overcome. But they played hard for seven innings, it was just an unfortunate ending."

With the loss, the Generals will finish the season 20-8, ending one of the eight best seasons in program history.

For Croston, although this loss was tough, it didn't ruin what they did this season he said.

"When we first started the season, people said that we weren't going to make it this far, and we made it here. We just have to be proud we made it here," he said. "Next year they have to take the torch and bring it back."

cteaguerob@gannett.com

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Twitter: @cj_teague