The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
LAKE RIDGE ROUTS RIVAL OPEN DOOR
Royals score four runs in first inning on way to run-rule victory April 24
The Lake Ridge Royals continued their impressive season with a 13-0 win over rival Open Door on April 24.
The game took five innings and the Royals jumped out to an early lead, scoring four runs in the top of the first.
Collin Harris, Jarrett Cromling and Jake Roach set the table for cleanup hitter Ian Ashby, who delivered a two-run double to left center.
Ashby and Roach later came around to score in the inning, giving starting pitcher Neil Robertson
a cushion to work with.
Robertson let one slip away and hit leadoff man Caleb Daniel with a pitch, but settled down after that to retire the next six.
Lake Ridge added another run in the second inning, courtesy of a walk and a stolen base by Devin Amy and an RBI single from Harris.
Lake Ridge went into the third inning with a 5-0 lead and blew the game open with six more runs, as the Royals batted around the order.
“Open Door is one of our rivals and even though we know where we’re at as a program, we know we’re always going to get their best.”
— Lake Ridge coach Jason Dimacchia
Ashby plated his second double of the day and was one of six Royals to record a hit in the inning.
Robertson continued to cruise on the mound for Lake Ridge and took a nohitter into the bottom of the fourth, when freshman cleanup hitter Alex Lloyd looped a single to shallow left.
“You’re holding your breath the whole game saying ‘Don’t let this be the day we get no-hit,’” Open Door coach Matt Loescher said after the game.
“It was great and the atbats were getting better as the game went on, so I knew it was just a matter of time. Somebody was going to come through. Lloyd put together a great second at-bat and that was a good hit. It lifted our spirits a little bit.”
Robertson retired the next two to preserve the shutout.
Heading into the fifth, despite trailing, 13-0, starting pitcher Charley Lovett stayed on the mound for Open Door and worked his first scoreless inning of the game.
Lovett recorded his 16th complete game of his career, a school record, and although the score wasn’t pretty, Loescher believes it was a sign of the senior’s leadership and mental toughness to stay on the mound.
“Lovett takes the mound and he doesn’t come off,” his coach said.
“Somebody asked me ‘are you going to go get him?’ Are you kidding? He’d slice me open and take my guts out if I tried to go get him off the mound. He’s not coming out of here. He doesn’t care what the score is.”
“We have nine freshman, a couple sophomores and a couple seniors. What he means to us, I can’t even put into words. He started the season off by saying ‘Guys, we’ve had three straight winning seasons. My job is to teach you the legacy of success and even if that doesn’t happen with wins this year, I want you to understand how important it is to me that when we win, you take that and pass it on to the younger kids coming up. We are here to win, to succeed and we don’t ever give up.’ He led by example today. He never gave in. It didn’t matter the score. It didn’t matter the errors behind him. He never gave up.”
Robertson finished out the game for Lake Ridge as strong as he started it, striking out the side.
Lake Ridge coach Jason Dimacchia felt it was important to get out to an early lead in the rivalry game and not let off the gas pedal.
“We took care of business,” Dimacchia said.
“Open Door is one of our rivals and even though we know where we’re at as a program, we know we’re always going to get their best. From the jump, we knew they were going to come out and be ready to compete, so no matter what our talent level is, no matter how strong our pitcher is, they’re going to give us their best shot. So we just came out with the mentality of taking care of business and I feel they did that today.”
Dimacchia was impressed with Robertson’s effort on the mound, as the sophomore struck out eight, allowing one hit and walking two in the complete game shutout.
“He was fantastic,” his coach said.
“Before the game, we just tried to get him in the mindset of working ahead and pitching to contact. He’s a big, strong kid and he’s only a sophomore so he has brighter years ahead of him. We were focused on him just finding the zone and letting your defense do the work, but fortunately, he was able to take care of some hitters himself today.”
It was Robertson’s first multi-inning start of the season and a big game for the No. 3 pitcher in the rotation to save the other arms for a busy week to come.
“I just came out today and tried to be as relaxed as possible because I’ve had a few bad starts. My last two starts were not what I wanted, but I made sure to come out and try not to overthrow or do too much,” Robertson said.
“I was sticking with the fastball today because I didn’t want to do too much and was just sticking with what works.”
Robertson credited his comfort on the mound to getting that big cushion from the offense, as the Royals plated 12 hits in five innings and every member of the starting lineup reached base at least once.
Harris, the senior leadoff hitter, went 3-for-4 on the day with three singles, scoring two runs and stealing a base.
“Getting on base in my first at-bat of the game was very important,” Harris said.
“I feel like I’ve been hitting well and if I get on, I know the guys behind me are going to hit me in. I think that if I get on base, it just sets the tone for the game.”
Ashby, the powerful cleanup man, plated two doubles on the day, the second of which was inches away from clearing the fence at the edge of the woods. The junior said once his team got out to an early lead, he was a bit more aggressive with his swing later in the game.
“I thought that one was gone, but that’s like the sixth time I’ve hit it off the wall this year. Just need a couple extra push-ups I guess,” Ashby joked.
“At the beginning of the game, it’s just about seeing people cross the plate, but as soon as we get a little bit of a lead up, I try and stretch the ball a little bit. I couldn’t stretch it far enough, but once again, we’re just having fun out there, playing Lake Ridge baseball.”
Lake Ridge (10-4) has been playing some impressive ball this season, earning wins over some of the area’s best Division III teams, including Wellington and Trinity.
Ashby credits his team’s success to its consistent approach to every game.
“We approach every game like it’s a tournament game,” he said.
“We come into the mentality that everybody can beat us. We came into this game just like we came into the Trinity game. Trinity’s number five in Division III in Ohio and we treated it no different than if we were playing Open Door.”
Open Door falls to 2-5 with the loss and Loescher believes games like the one against Lake Ridge can be a learning experience for his young players.
“We’re starting six freshman out there. They have a lot to learn and they learned a lot out today,” Loescher said.
“They got to see a wellcoached team, which executes and does everything right. We got a Ph.D on how to play baseball today.”
Lovett, one of the team’s senior leaders talked about what exactly his young teammates could learn from the loss.
“I think what we can take away from this game is watching how to play relaxed baseball,” Lovett said.
“From the moment they took pre-game all the way throughout the game, we saw a great Lake Ridge team that played nice and smooth and played just the way they practice. I think that’s something we can learn and eventually we’ll grow from it.”