Jun 11, 2018 4 min read

NEW CASTLE – It wasn’t pretty, but no one is going to care about that years from now.

Besides, runs, not style points, decide these types of games.

And that was why Ringgold High School’s baseball team was celebrating at the end of this one, a 3-2 victory over Meadville in the PIAA Class 4A semifinals at Neshannock High School on a breezy Monday.

The win sends Ringgold into the state finals Thursday against Valley View. First pitch is 3:30 p.m. at Penn State’s Medlar Field in Lubrano Park.

This will be the first appearance in the state baseball finals in Ringgold’s history. The Rams were WPIAL runners-up and enter the game against Valley View, the District 2 champion, with a 19-4 record.

Meadville, the District 10 runner-up, finishes the season with a 15-6 record.

“We’ve had some tight games during the season but none of this magnitude. So yes, it was pretty stressful,” said Don Roberts, who took over Ringgold’s program three games into last season and now has it on the doorstep to its first state title.

“It’s pretty sacred ground for us. We never even won a state playoff game before so this is all new ground for us.”

The two teams combined for five errors over the final inning and a half, and Ringgold scored the winning run in the top of the seventh inning without the benefit of a hit.

Designated hitter Chase Angotti hit a routine grounder to shortstop, but the throw by Meadville’s Alex Knox got past first baseman Andrew Mouck, allowing Angotti to reach second base.

One out later, winning pitcher Ryan Varley hit a ground ball to third base and the throw bounced away for another error and allowed Angotti to score.

Ringgold erased a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning when Bobby Boyer smacked a single off Meadville starter Chad Neugabauer that scored Varley and Bo Haines, who both walked at the start of the inning.

Boyer has seven RBI in the past two games, including a titanic three-run home run that punctuated a 12-0 five-inning win over Hopewell in the PIAA quarterfinals last week.

But any chance of Boyer being a hero evaporated in the bottom of the sixth inning when three consecutive errors on infield grounders allowed courtesy runner Landon Beck to score and tie the game, 2-2.

“We lost some of our people,” Roberts said. “It wasn’t our base defense, so we were a little nervous. Good thing we were able to recover from it.”

Tempers flared in the bottom of the fifth inning on a collision at first base on a groundout. A player from each team – Ringgold first baseman Anthony Vavasori and Meadville’s Cole Potase – were ejected from the game. By rule, each player must sit out the next game. Vavasori will not play in Thursday’s state final.

“I think it hurt us,” Roberts said. “Our kids don’t need something like that to be emotional. We’re already an emotional team. It wasn’t a good thing for us; that’s for sure.”

Potase appeared to lower his shoulder into Vavasori as he reached the bag well after the ball arrived. Vavasori turned and shoved Potase. After order was restored, the umpires ejected both players.

“Obviosuly, he ran into him. I wasn’t paying that much attention but (the umpires) said he lowered his shoulder into him,” said Meadville head coach Bruce Stewart. “That was why they called the ejections. It was an unfortunate situation.”

Nearly lost in the game was the performance of Varley, who went 6 2/3 innings, struck out 11 and walked two. He was lifted with two outs in the seventh inning after reaching the pitch-count limit.

“This is history in the making,” Varley said. “I wouldn’t want to be there with any other group of guys. This team is like family. Let’s hope we get the win at Penn State.”