Lions hold off Ringgold, 4-1
Ringgold's Chase Angotti sprints home to score the first run of the game Tuesday night in the WPIAL Class AAAA Championship against South Fayette at Wild Things Park.
Edward K.Thompson
Ringgold starting pitcher Ryan Varley fires a pitch to the plate in Tuesday’s WPIAL Class AAAA Championship against South Fayette at Wild Things Park.
Ringgold fans stand up and cheer during Tuesday's WPIAL Class AAAA Championship against South Fayette at Wild Things Park.
WASHINGTON — Ringgold’s baseball team has come a long way in the past two seasons, but it fell just one victory short of a WPIAL title on Tuesday night.
Richie Dell limited the Rams to just three hits over 6 1/3 innings, and also delivered a back-breaking triple in the bottom of the sixth inning to lead South Fayette to a 4-1 win in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game at Wild Things Park.
“They shouldn’t keep their heads down. They had a hell of a season,” second-year Ringgold coach Don Roberts said. “They’re responsible for turning this program around. Even though they didn’t win today, they still accomplished a lot.
“They aren’t done yet.”
The Rams (16-4) will begin play in the PIAA playoffs on Monday with the opponent, site and time to be determined.
Ringgold took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Chase Angotti was hit by Dell’s first pitch, moved to second on Koby Bubash’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Luke Winterbottom laced a two-out single to center.
That was the only offense the Rams could muster on this night as they were held to under three runs for only the second time this season.
“He was just locating his stuff really good,” Roberts said of Dell. “He was beating up the outside part of the plate. We just didn’t adjust and get that hit with runners on.
“He pitched a really good game. He was throwing really hard and that slider was biting really hard.”
Ringgold starting pitcher Ryan Varley did his best to keep the Rams in the game.
South Fayette threatened to tie it in the bottom of the first but Varley worked out of a jam with more than just his pitching.
Joey Alcorn drew a lead-off walk, stole second but was cut down going to third on Mitch Dunay’s grounder back to the mound as Varley made a quick throw to third baseman Angotti. Dunay went to second on Elijah Snider’s single to right, but was then picked off by Varley with second baseman Jake Rongaus making the tag. Varley then got Christian Gabriel on a called strike three to end the threat.
Ringgold looked to increase its lead in the third when Varley singled and promptly stole second with one out, but Dell retired the next two batters.
The Lions surged ahead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the third. Alcorn reached second on a two-out infield throwing error and scored on Dunay’s single to left. Snider was hit by a pitch and Gabriel followed with another run-scoring single to left. That proved to be the winning run.
The Rams put a runner on second with one out again in the fifth when Dylan Wujcik reached on an error and Angotti bunted him to second. Again, Dell set down the next two hitters.
Varley ran out of gas in the sixth when the Lions (17-5) tacked on two insurance runs to all but put the game away. Dell started the rally with a triple to deep right field. Tyler Bedillion singled him in one out later, took second on an outfield throwing error and scored on Matt Primm’s single to cap the game’s scoring and knocked Varley from the mound.
“They’re just a really good lineup and eventually caught up to Ryan,” Roberts said. “The third time through the order they started getting really good swings on him.”
Varley allowed one earned run on eight hits with two walks, one hit batter and six strikeouts. He was hurt by a pair of errors, but Roberts shook those fielding miscues off.
“That’s just part of the game,” he said. “Errors happen to everyone. I don’t want to put it on one person. We’ve all made errors throughout the course of the season.
“You’ve just got to be able to get hits. We needed to score more than one run to win the game.”
Chase Angotti relieved Varley and got the final two outs in the sixth.
Ringgold got the tying run to the plate and pushed Dell off the mound in the top of the seventh.
Jacob Mayer, who had the Rams’ only other hit, drew a one-out walk, prompting Lions coach Kenny Morgan to call on reliever Bedillion. Dylan Wujcik drilled a shot to left that was caught for the second out, but Angotti reached on an error to bring up Bubash.
Bedillion got him on a come-backer to the mound, however, to seal the win and earn the save.