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Ringgold roars into Class 4A baseball finals

4 min read
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The dark days appear to be over for Ringgold High School’s baseball team.

For years, losing and heartbreak were the norm for this program.

Not now.

The Rams erupted for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to snap a tie ballgame and defeat Greensburg Salem, 7-3, Wednesday in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals at Ross Memorial Park.

For the first time since 1999, Ringgold, now 16-3, has made it to the WPIAL finals. The Rams play South Fayette in the championship game at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday at Wild Things Park. The Rams also qualified for the state tournament.

Ringgold, the Section 3 champion, was coming off a 5-4 victory over New Castle in the first round of the playoffs.

Greensburg Salem, third-place finisher in Section 1, had a seven-game winning streak snapped by the Rams. The Golden Lions, whose streak included a 1-0 playoff upset of Blackhawk, scored 49 runs in that span. Greensburg Salem fell to 13-6 and play Hopewell for third place Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Ross Memorial Park.

The emotion of this day bubbled over after the Rams recorded the final out. Players tossed caps and gloves into the air and stormed the mound to celebrate together.

“I can’t even explain it. It’s such a great feeling,” said Chase Angotti, the Rams starter who went 6 2/3 innings and also drove in two runs in the four-run sixth.

“We worked for this all winter. Coming into the season, this was our goal, to get to the championship. Now we have to go out and win it because that’s the ultimate goal.”

Before this surge into the playoffs – the second such foray since Don Roberts stepped in as head coach last season – Ringgold had gone through 11 sub-.500 seasons, where long losing streaks were the norm. That’s what made this victory so sweet.

“We’ve come a long way and it’s a testament to how hard these kids worked,” said Roberts. “We didn’t take many days off after last season. They just battled and battled. I love these kids.

“Last year, we had a young team and gained experience in the playoffs. We got two playoff games and that helped us this season.”

It wasn’t a picture-perfect game. The two teams combined for six errors and only six of the 10 runs were earned. Greensburg Salem took a 2-0 lead after three innings, scoring on an RBI single by Jack Oberdorf in the first inning and on a throwing error on a steal of third base in the third inning.

But Ringgold took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third, taking advantage of two Greensburg Salem throwing errors and an RBI infield single by Anthony Vavasori.

Greensburg Salem tied it 3-3 in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by starting pitcher Andrew Rosenburg.

“We knew their Nos. 3, 4, 5 hitters and their leadoff hitters were tough so I just tried to keep them off balance,” Angotti said. “Their No. 4 hitter (Matt Wicker) hit a pretty good shot off me in the first inning, so I tried to keep him even more off balance.”

Ringgold sent nine batters to the plate in the sixth inning. Back-to-back singles by Robert Boyer and Jake Rongaus, plus a throwing error by Rosenburg, put runners on second and third. Angotti brought them both in with a single. Angotti came around to score on a wild pitch and Luke Winterbottom, who went 3-for-4, knocked in the final run with a triple to the gap in left field.

“It wasn’t our day today,” said Greensburg Salem head coach Bill Wisniewski. “A couple errors here and there but that’s the way baseball goes.”

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