U’town plays spoiler, eliminates Rams from playoff hunt
By JOE SABOLEK
MVI Sports
The Uniontown Red Raiders made the trek from Fayette County to visit the Ringgold Rams in Section 3-4A action Thursday at Ken Griffey Sr. Field as Uniontown played spoiler in Ringgold’s quest for a playoff berth, defeating the Rams, 8-1, and knocking Ringgold out of playoff contention in the last section contest of the season.
“You know we’re a super young team this year and I think we did exceed expectations,” said Ringgold manager Don Roberts. “Despite these kids being so young they battled every game, and that’s all you can ask for. It’s a young group and it’s something to build off of, but I just feel for the three seniors it’s a tough way to go out.”
Christian Thomas was the driving force behind the Red Raiders’ victory as he tossed a complete-game four hitter. He allowed only one earned run, which came in the final frame of the contest. He got it done at the plate as well, going 3 for 5 and swiping a pair of bases.
It was a tightly contested affair for the first two innings as Ringgold starting pitcher Ashton Ray was able to limit the Red Raiders to very little offensive production. The Red Raiders (4-12, 3-9) finally broke through with a pair of three-run innings in the third and fourth.
Andrew Maher smacked a double into the right-field alley and was brought home by a Mason Kuhn single. Tate Musko lined a double into the gap as well to plate two more runs.
After a pair of back-to-back knocks in the top of the fourth, Maher hit an RBI groundout to bringing home another run. Kuhn added another RBI single before catcher Colt Sparks was walked with the bases loaded by Eli Callaway, who came into relieve Ray.
The one bright spot for the Rams was the relief appearance of Callaway who only yielded two runs through 3.2 innings of work.
“He did a really good job,” said Roberts. “He’s usually a one- or two-inning guy for us, but playing four games in a row this week we were tapped with our pitching. But he did pitch great for us today and another one of our good sophomore pitchers that we’ll have back next year.”
The Red Raiders tacked on two more in the top of the sixth as Thomas continued to hold the Rams’ bats in check, retiring 13 out of 14 batters and only surrendering one hit into the seventh.
Ringgold (8-10, 4-8) did receive some offensive production in the seventh, as they were able to muster up a run and break up the shutout.
Joey Shumaker was the lone Rams’ batter with multiple hits, going 2 for 3, while Andrew Mackey and Joey Verscharen each had a hit.
For Uniontown, Thomas wasn’t the only Red Raider making an impact at the dish. Hunter Chaikcic, Erick Odum, and Kuhn all tallied two hits. Musko also finished with three RBIs and Sparks had two as well.
“We have everyone coming back besides our three seniors and we’ll have one senior next year and 11 juniors on the team next year. We’ll have everyone back and we’ll get it going with fall ball this next school year,” said Roberts.
