DuBois Seniors rally to force deciding game against locals for District 10 title
Midway through the sixth inning of the second game of the bestof-three series between the Ridgway all-stars and DuBois on Sunday, the local squad, which is made up players from Ridgway, St. Marys, and Fox Township, was one run shy of 10-running DuBois to sweep the series as they led 14-5. However, instead of leaving DuBois with the District 10 banner, the Ridgway squad gave up 10 unanswered runs to lose 1514, with DuBois forcing a deciding game for the title that will be played on Tuesday.
Ridgway won the first game of the series 12-2 in five innings on Friday in Ridgway.
Both teams put a run on the board in the first inning of Sunday's matchup.
In the top of the inning, Shawn Geci gave the locals an early lead as he drew a two-out walk and went on to score on a wild pitch. A leadoff walk followed by a one-out single resulted in DuBois' first run in the bottom of the inning.
Ridgway retook the lead in the top of the second as Brayden Asti drew a leadoff walk, stole second, advanced to third on a balk, and then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Rocco Delhunty. The run put the locals back in front 2-1.
DuBois left the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning.
Ben Porkolab hit a one-out single in the top of the third but was left stranded. A pair of walks resulted in a pair of stranded runners for DuBois in the bottom of the inning.
A big seven-run top of the fourth put Ridgway up 9-1. Geci, Porkolab, Derek Beimel, Cayden Vogt, Asti, Delhunty, and Hunter Beeler all put runs on the board for the locals in the inning.
DuBois responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to cut Ridgway's lead to 9-5.
Ridgway got three of those runs back in the top of the fifth to go up 12-5. Patrick Forster, Aiden Beimel, and Geci all scored in the inning.
DuBois was unable to answer in the home half of the inning.
Delhunty and Louis Bonini scored the final two runs for Ridgway in the top of the sixth as the locals went up by nine, 14-5. Unfortunately, that would not be enough to secure the win.
DuBois responded with five runs in the bottom of the sixth to trim the lead to 14-10, and then scored five more in the bottom of the seventh to walk off with the 15-14 win and force Tuesday's deciding game.
The teams will face off at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Ridgway in the winnertake-all matchup. The winner will advance to the Section 1 tournament, which is scheduled to get underway on July 3.