Apr 27, 2018 By Bill Hughes for The 3 min read

CARROLL TWP. — It can be said that Ringgold had a checklist of things it wanted to accomplish in its 4-3 Section 3-AAAA win over rival Belle Vernon Area Friday afternoon.

The Rams (10-1, 9-1) wanted to give themselves some breathing room on top of the section standings.

Check.

They also wanted avenge their lone loss of the season, a 5-4 setback they suffered at Belle Vernon (6-3, 6-3) on April 11.

Check.

And lastly, the Rams wanted to defeat the Leopards for the first time in over eight years.

Check.

“This is huge because we have gone a really long time without beating this program,” said Ringgold coach Don Roberts of Ringgold’s first win over its rival in eight years, and eight days to be exact. “They are a great team but every time we play them, the games have been tight and I am glad that we finally closed it out.

“The last time we played them, we weren’t able to close it out late.”

Roberts spoke about the keys to the game.

“Both teams pride themselves on timely hitting and defense and we were able to get both today,” he said. “They were key and so was our pitching.”

Ryan Varley went five innings and limited Belle Vernon to three hits before giving way to the bullpen.

“The difference is that we had a hard time finding the strike zone,” Belle Vernon coach Daryl Hixenbaugh said. “Joe (Sabolek) built his pitch count up and that happens.

“Other than that, we played well, had chances but just didn’t execute, and that is baseball.”

Ringgold got on the board in the second inning with two runs.

Anthony Vavasori walked to lead off the inning and then Jake Mayer singled.

Four batters later, Koby Bubash singled them in.

The Leopards tied the game in the third when Jake Rathway singled in Nolan Labuda and Logan Seliga, but the Rams took the lead right back in the bottom of the inning when Bo Haines drilled a home run to right field that landed on the running track at Joe Montana Field.

Ringgold extended its lead to 4-2 in the fifth.

Haines led off with a double and scored three batters later on an RBI single by Bobby Boyer.

Belle Vernon Area trimmed the lead to one in the sixth when a bases loaded walk to Labuda brought in Jordan Hartman.

A 25-minute rain delay halted play heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Had the field not been in such great shape prior to the game thanks to the Ringgold grounds crew, the storm would have wiped out the rest of the game, but the crew found a bag of Diamond Dry and placed it down on the field where the umpires requested it.

JJ Hartman retired Ringgold in the bottom of the sixth but Josh Peters retired the side in the seventh to give Ringgold the win and a two-game lead in the section.

Hixenbaugh said the Leopards will bounce back.

“This is a very resilient group,” he said. “This is a unique group of young men and they want to win.”