Lake Ridge holds off rally by Open Door

The Lake Ridge Royals hold off an Open Door comeback to win, 8-5, and remain undefeated.

It’s not easy being undefeated this late in the season. It takes a special mentality, resilience and awareness to know that every team, especially your rival, is gunning to be the one who knocks you off the top of the mountain.

Undefeated Lake Ridge (18-0) almost learned that lesson the hard way, but they held on to beat Open Door, 8-5, on May 4.

the Royals tallied five runs in the first three innings, only to allow a youthful and upset-minded Open Door back into the game as they loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the fifth.

That’s when Royals head coach Jason Dimacchia called upon “Mr. Chaos” Jake Roach (2-0) in relief. Roach allowed three unearned runs, but buckled down, striking out five while receiving a boost from his offense as the Royals strung together three runs and walked out of Victory Sports Park on May 4 knowing they tempted fate.

“I thought that early we started off with the leadoff home run, and then all of our bats turned into overly aggressive at-bats,” Dimacchia said. “We weren’t playing our game. We weren’t putting the ball in play, or getting runners over. It turned into kids trying to turn it into a home run derby.”

The Royals’ aggressive mentality came after witnessing a leadoff home run from teammate Cole Bramhall, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead. Matt South added to the lead in the second

with a two-RBI single.

South, who also took the mound, went four innings, allowing seven hits and one run while striking out five.

Open Door’s Mitch Abram cut the lead with an RBI single in the top of the third, only to have Lake Ridge’s Austin Bramhall push it back up with an infield single RBI, followed by Brian Smith’s RBI single.

It seemed that the contest was headed for a possible rout, but that’s when the tables turned.

The Patriots (8-5) battled hard as they tallied a pair of singles, followed by Josh Zaborowski being grazed by a pitch, loading the bases and setting up the intense fifth inning.

With Roach hurling heat, the Patriots played loose, Abram tallied another RBI single, followed by Alex Lloyd’s RBI single, trimming the lead to 5-3. A fielding error to first also allowed Zaborowski to score, pulling the Patriots within one run. Things began to come unglued for the Royals as a dropped ball scored Abrams, evening up the game at 5-5.

Lake Ridge had three errors.

Open Door coach Matt Loescher couldn’t have been more proud of his team’s fight against a stateranked powerhouse.

“We have five freshmen out there, three sophomores out there and a junior against the No. 4 team in the state,” Loescher said. “All I asked them for was to go out there and compete. We did that, and I’m extremely proud of them. I told them, ‘Today is my birthday, why don’t you guys go out there and give me the best birthday victory and beat the No. 4 team in the state?’ We didn’t do that, but it was still a pretty good gift. I was really happy to hang with them.”

Roach gave the Royals a gift of their own as he struck out five after relinquishing the four runs in the familiar situation.

“Yeah, I’m used to it by now,” Roach said. “I always come in there with less than two outs. I think every time I pitched has been bases load with less than two outs, a couple times with no outs.”

Roach scattered the Patriot batters with an array of pitches.

“Just my four-seam and two-seam slider, just locating my pitches and hitting my spots, that’s what it comes down too,” Roach said.

Facing an unusual situation late, Lake Ridge strung together a couple base runners with two singles and a walks in the fifth, loading the bases for Matt South, who was walked by Open Door Christian’s Carter Wright, allowing Brian Smith to score.

After Ian Ashby stole second and third in the sixth, Neil Robinson brought him home with an RBI triple, giving the Royals some breathing room, 7-5.

Robinson was determined to make an impact with the game so close.

“Stepping in the box, I’m always just in the mindset that we need to get a run and I have to make contact and get on base. Base runners are golden in a situations where you are up by one.”