Avoiding losing streaks has been key to Ringgold’s season

Don Roberts admits the changes have been few and far between since he became the Ringgold High School baseball coach last year.
The one thing Roberts could pinpoint as a need for change was in the culture surrounding the program.
In recent years, losses for the Rams likely meant one thing: more losses would follow.
That was until Roberts was hired as the head coach.
Ringgold’s three regular-season losses this year have been followed with a six-game winning streak and a pair of three-game winning streaks.
But no streak by the Rams is more impressive than their last two victories, which followed a heartbreaking defeat to South Fayette in the WPIAL Class 4A championship game. Ringgold (18-4) won its first state playoff game in come-from-behind fashion over St. Mary’s, then only needed five innings to defeat Hopewell, 12-0.
“You have to give most of the credit to the seniors,” Roberts said. “They have kept everything under control. It says a lot about their character.”
The Rams will play Meadville at 6:30 p.m. today in the PIAA Class 4A semifinals at Neshannock High School. The site of the game was changed Sunday by the PIAA.
“I can’t believe we got so far this quick,” Roberts said. “You have to pinch yourself. To think, this is the furthest Ringgold has made it (in the state tournament). It means a lot.”
Meadville, the District 10 runner-up, advanced by getting a suicide-squeeze play during extra innings to defeat South Fayette in the first round, then downed Bellefonte on a walkoff single in the quarterfinals.
Nick Frantz and Chad Neugabauer each have an ERA under 2.00 for Meadville (14-5). Frantz is 6-0 with a 1.34 ERA in 31 1/3 innings. Neugabauer is 3-3 with a 1.90 ERA in 48 innings. He has 74 strikeouts.
“They are very similar to us,” Roberts said. “They pitch well, play good defense and manufacture a lot of runs. It puts a lot of pressure on our defense but that’s a matchup we like because it’s one of our strengths.”
Roberts believes what will determine if the Rams advance to their first state championship game or not is which offense shows up. Ringgold went 11 scoreless innings in postseason play prior to its late comeback against St. Mary’s, but then put together two five-run innings against Hopewell in the quarterfinals.
“It was really good for our confidence,” Roberts said. “We had a tough stretch because we were going against two of the top pitchers in the state. One thing we’ve stressed to our players is that we don’t want to play our last game with the seniors. We are rallying around them.”
One of the seniors, Ryan Varley, will start on the mound for Ringgold. He is 5-1 with a 1.02 ERA in 41 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting only .234 against Varley, who was the tough-luck loser in the WPIAL title game after giving up two unearned runs and receiving little help from the Rams’ offense.
“We had three goals coming into this year,” Roberts said. “They were to win our section, win the WPIAL and win state. Losing in the WPIAL championship game was tough for all of us. But the biggest prize is the one still in front of us. The biggest championship is the one that’s still on the line.”