Ruckdeschel’s inside-the-park homer caps rally
FORT MYERS — In the third game since Chris Ruckdeschel’s return to the St. Thomas Aquinas lineup from a back injury, he had the biggest hit in a extrainning, come-from-behind state semifinal victory that was decided eight hours after first pitch.
Ruckdeschel, the senior outfielder signed to FSU, crushed a two-run insidethe-park home run deep to the right-field corner in the top of the eighth inning for the difference in a 6-3 win over Lakeland George Jenkins, ranked seventh by Baseball America, to get Aquinas to its first championship game since 2003.
The Raiders (26-3), 16th in the Baseball America rankings, will face Sarasota back at Fort Myers’ CenturyLink Sports Complex at 5 p.m. today in the Class 8A final.
Heavy rain started to fall as Ruckdeschel, who was the designated hitter, stepped up to the plate. With Cade Fergus, who singled and walked twice, on first and two outs, Ruckdeschel launched a high fly ball that carried as Jenkins right fielder Taylor Buffington struggled with it in the rain, dove and couldn’t come up with the catch. Hustling around the base paths, Ruckdeschel slid around a tag at the plate to put St. Thomas up 2 after trailing, 3-0, earlier Friday.
The tarp was rolled out onto the field, which is at the Minnesota Twins’ spring training facility, and the teams came back out following a five-hour, 42-minute delay. The Raiders added insurance upon the return with Gabe Terry scoring Riley Rosario on an RBI double.
Sophomore Miami commit Nate Thomas sealed it in the bottom of the eighth after pitching a perfect seventh. Davidson signee Blake Hely threw the first six innings.
With the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, Pitt-signed shortstop Andres Antonini hit the sacrifice fly to right that scored Terry, who singled, to tie it at 3.
Junior catcher Nick Vera inched the Raiders closer from the three-run deficit in the fourth and sixth innings — first with a solo homer to left and then with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Matt Archer, who went 3 for 5 in the leadoff spot.
Hely gave up three runs — two earned — on five hits, walked and struck out three.
George Jenkins (26-4), a school named after the founder of Publix, started off hot with two runs in the first. FGCU signee Brandt Sundean blooped a single to left-center to score a run and junior Florida commit Jake Herbert hit an RBI single to right-center.
The Eagles added one in the third for a 3-0 advantage when Herbert struck again with a run-scoring base hit that brought home FSU signee Brandon Howlett, who doubled to lead off the inning.
Jenkins starter Daniel Batcher, who entered 11-0, threw 6 and gave up the first three runs before turning the game over to Nick Hain, who gave up the home run to Ruckdeschel.
dfurones@sunsentinel.com, Twitter @DavidFurones_