High school baseball: Mistakes sink North Ridgeville against St. Ignatius

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — North Ridgeville learned a hard lesson about making mistakes against a good team after falling into a hole against St. Ignatius due to errors in the first three innings Thursday night. The Rangers lost the non-conference matchup, 6-4. "Every game is important, but this was a bigger game and a test against a bigger school like St. Ignatius, a traditional powerhouse," Rangers coach Matt Ponting said. "You judge yourself against teams like this and we made too many early mistakes and couldn't get off the field with two outs." The Wildcats (4-6) got some help early as Ryan Whelan led off the game with a single and took second when the ball was misplayed in the outfield. He went to third on a flyball and came home on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead. The lead went to 2-0 with two outs in the second on a single by Marcus Tekanic and a base hit from Max Hirsch. North Ridgeville got one back in the bottom of the second with some St. Ignatius help when Zach Poltorek reached on a fielder's choice, moved up on an infield single by Carter Clark and scored on a wild pitch. A Rangers error led directly to one of two runs by St. Ignatius in the third as Whelan singled and Jackson Antony reached on an infield error. Both of those baserunners moved up on a double-steal and came home on sacrifice flies off the bats of Jacob Merheb and AJ Peluso to give the Wildcats a 4-1 lead. North Ridgeville (9-4) once again answered in their half of the third as Enmanuel Ramos walked, stole second and came home on a single to left by Matthew Flesher to trim the St. Ignatius lead to 4-2. The Rangers managed to get runners on base the next two innings but couldn't get the clutch hit against a steady stream of relievers out of the Wildcats bullpen. Two batters reached in the fourth on a hit-by-pitch and a walk, Ramos walked and was erased on a fielder's choice in the fifth and in the sixth, North Ridgeville went down in order for only the second time in the game. The Wildcats tallied runs in the fourth and fifth innings, and those proved to be the difference in the game as the Rangers went down fighting in the seventh. James Kingrey and Gannon Padgett opened the seventh with base hits and the bases went loaded when Ramos drew a walk. The first run came home on a balk call and Branden Harrison drove home the second run with a sacrifice fly to right. After a strikeout, Poltorek, representing the tying run at the plate, turned on a pitch and sent a deep drive to right that was hauled in just before the warning track to end the game. "(The Wildcats) just came back from Florida after playing nationally ranked teams, so their record is deceiving," Ponting said. "We didn't stop at the end of the game because there is no clock. We kept battling to the last out and that's all I can ask of the guys." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.