STRUTHERS — Despite outhitting Ursuline, several costly mistakes proved to be too much for South Range to overcome on Saturday.
The Raiders finished with five errors, and the Fighting Irish were able to capitalize, as Thomas Kosovan’s walk-off sacrifice fly scored AJ Snyder from third base in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 5-4 Ursuline victory at Bob Cene Park.
“We had some hard hit balls, and we forced them to make plays,” Irish head coach Paul Kempe said. “We’ve always talked to our guys about being aggressive if they’re going to give us extra bases, and it’s a credit to our guys. … But it was a heck of a battle for eight innings and a tournament-type game. Really proud of our kids for coming out on top and hopefully we build off this in the last week of the (regular) season.”
Three South Range fielding errors led directly to three runs for Ursuline, with the first two coming in the bottom of the third inning after the Raiders had taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the frame on a pair of RBIs from Gaven Nagy and Brennen Klasovsky.
In that inning, the Irish got a lead-off base hit from Joe Balog, which was followed by Jake Bednar reaching base on an error by the Raiders’ shortstop.
After another hit from Anthony Triveri, CJ Synder batted in a run and was able to reach on the second error, which came when a throw airmailed Klasovsky at third base, leading to another run to score.
“The errors hurt,” South Range head coach Jim Hanek said. “When you out-hit them 8-6, and then you look at the far right column of the scoreboard and it’s 5-2 errors — to me, that was the big difference today in the outcome. Of course, the errors were timely. If we don’t have those errors, we don’t even go to extra innings.”
In the next at-bat, Rowan Urbach scored Ursuline’s third and final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly deep to center field and the Raiders closed out the inning with a double play.
With Ursuline sitting on a 4-3 lead heading into the seventh inning, it was do-or-die time for South Range.
The Raiders opened the inning with Dylan Smesko reaching base on an Ursuline throwing error that soared over the head of first-baseman AJ Snyder. Then after a hit from Lincoln Cleevely, Klasovsky belted a double to score Smesko and tie things up at four runs apiece.
“We were debating — the lead runner reaches, do we try to steal the bag? Do we bunt them over and get to the top half of the order?” Hanek said. “I trust those guys with the bat in their hands and we didn’t bunt. You got a kid like Brennen, who’s been one of our clutch guys all year, pick us up with a huge hit.”
South Range would go on to load the bases, but wasn’t able to add to its total during the inning.
“We had an opportunity with a hit to go up maybe one or two runs, that was big at the time,” Hanek said. “But you tip your cap, they did what they needed to do in extras.”
After the Irish weren’t able to win it in regulation at the bottom of the seventh inning, the two teams went into extras.
The Raiders picked up two quick groundouts before Smesko got a walk, but Nagy flew out to left field to end the inning.
Getting a second chance to walk it off in the bottom of the eighth, Ursuline didn’t let the opportunity get away.
AJ Snyder advanced to first in the lead-off spot after getting hit with a pitch by South Range reliever Shaun Updegraff. Then, during Kosovan’s at-bat, Updegraff’s pick-off attempt flew over Jake Shumate’s head at first base and AJ Snyder took off, putting the winning run at third base.
Kosovan blasted a high ball deep to center field, which was caught by Cleevely, but still gave AJ Snyder plenty of time to get home for the game-winning run.
“Go be the guy, (I told Kosovan),” Kempe said. “He’s done that a ton for us, whether it’s on the mound, defensively or at the plate. Just trust yourself, hit the ball hard and make them make a play. He got a ball, he sent it deep to center and did a job to win the game, and that’s all we can ask for. … I can’t say enough words about how Thomas played today. I told the kids after, if we get all of our guys to play like Thomas did today, we’re going to be a hard out for anyone come tournament time.”
Triveri pitched the first five innings for the Irish, but Urbach picked up the win in relief. Triveri also was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with an RBI, picking up four of Ursuline’s six total hits on his own.
The baseball postseason brackets are released on Sunday, but Ursuline (12-9) continues the regular season with a visit to Canfield on Tuesday, while South Range (12-7) is scheduled to host Lakeview on Monday.
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