By Dan Messerschmidt
CCN Sports Director

BUCYRUS — Neither team is in the hunt for a league title and the tournament draws took place last week.

Nothing about Saturday’s baseball game between Ridgedale and Bucyrus gave any indication of those facts.

In a classically played contest, Bucyrus’ Trevor Ley pitched a complete game four-hitter to lead his team to a 3-1 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory.

Three Ridgedale pitchers grudgingly gave up the three runs on six hits. The Rockets committed one error that did not affect the scoring and the Redmen had no miscues.

“It was a very well-played game, a very well-pitched game,” Bucyrus coach Sean Maudsley said. “There weren’t a lot of walks.”

“All in all, it was a good baseball game,” Ridgedale coach Lanny Martin said. “It was a good baseball game and it had to be something nice to watch.”

Bucyrus (7-12, 4-10 N10) got to Rockets’ starter Mitch Reasoner for a run in the bottom of the first. Ryan Evans walked with one out. He stole second and went to third on a passed ball.

Ben Seybert singled to drive in Evans. Lucas Kozinski doubled but Reasoner pitched out of the jam without giving up any more runs.

In the second, Ridgedale (14-8, 5-8) loaded the bases on a pair of walks on either side of an Adam Beard single as Ley lost the strike zone. The sophomore right-hander got off the hook by fanning two and inducing an infield popup, to keep the Rockets off the board.

“It wasn’t Trevor’s best game of the year,” Maudsley said. “They’ve got 3-4 really good hitters and I thought he pitched very well to them. Even though he may have walked them, he didn’t put something down the middle of the plate.”

“Our pitch selection was terrible,” Martin said. “We swung at bad pitches and let the good ones go. So, the pitcher gets all the credit for that. He struggled (with his control), but he was effective with it and kept us off-guard.”

The Redmen got all the runs Ley would need in the third. Seybert led off with a walk and Kozinski was hit by a pitch. Tod Spurlock singled to load the bases and Seybert scored on an error.

With one out, Gram Dick singled, and Dylan Goff laid down a sacrifice bunt — one of his two and one of three for Bucyrus — that drove in Kozinski for a 3-0 lead.

“We kind of wanted to play small ball all year, but we’ve gotten ourselves down 2-3 runs,” Maudsley said of the sacrifices. “You can play small ball a little but not all the time. Today we were getting our leadoff on and we were able to do some things.”

Ley was touched for two hits in the fifth but kept the shutout going. The Rockets avoided getting blanked in the seventh.

Cole Brown was hit by a pitch and stole second. Brown scored on a two-out single by Sam Leach.

Ley finished with seven strikeouts and four walks, surrendering just four hits. Kozinski doubled and scored to lead the Redmen offense. Dick singled twice, while Evans, Seibert and Spurlock singled. Goff and Seibert drove in runs.

Leach had two of the four Rockets’ hits. Beard and Price had the other two, all singles. Reasoner gave up all three runs on the mound in his two-plus innings of work, recording one strikeout and walking three.

Ethan Mapes pitched three innings and Derek Lust one in shutout relief to keep Ridgedale within striking distance.

“We were flat today on the bats,” Martin said. “But you have to give their pitcher credit. He threw a nice game and kept us off-guard.”

“We called a hit-and-run, we called a squeeze play and we called a bunch of sacrifice bunts,” Maudsley said. “We made them field the ball and luckily, a couple times they didn’t cover.”

“I’m really proud of our guys because we’ve come a long way from last year,” Martin said. “We only won two games and this year we are competitive. We’ve been in every game with a chance to win ourselves. I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

“The improvement they’ve made from last year to this year, if you know anything about baseball, is evident,” Maudsley said of the Rockets. “Their attitude has totally changed. (Coach Martin) does a good job of getting these guys to do the little things.”

208-530-3035

Ridgedale    000 000 1       1    4    1

Bucyrus       103 000 X       3    6    0

WP: Trevor Ley (7 SO, 4 W)

LP: Mitch Reasoner (1 SO, 3 W)

HR: None.

Triples: None.

Doubles: (B) Lucas Kozinski.

Multiple hits: (R) Sam Leach; (B) Gram Dick.

Records: Ridgedale 14-8 (5-8 N10); Bucyrus 7-12 (4-10 N10).

Next: Wellington School at Ridgedale, Monday; Bucyrus at Ridgedale, Tuesday.