CLAREMORE — A strong pitching performance from Cordale Barton and a three-run home run from Gibson Russ led the Grove Ridgerunners to their second straight win, defeating the Miami Wardogs 6-3 in the third place game of the Tiger-Zebra Classic on Saturday.
The Ridgerunners (11-7) snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 9-8 win over Joplin to finish pool play on Friday and that momentum carried over to Saturday’s finale.
The Ridgerunners lost to 5A no.2 Claremore 5-4 on Thursday and 14-4 to seventh-ranked McAlester in their first game Friday before defeating Joplin in a back-and-forth contest.
Grove trailed for most of the game on Saturday after the Wardogs scored a run each in the second and third innings. Cole Young led off the second with double for Miami and advanced to third and then scored on groundouts by Ty Mercer and Nick Allen.
The Wardogs only mustered three hits through the first four innings off Barton, but were opportunistic again when Dylan Hall hit a one-out triple to right centerfield in the third and scored on Colt Summers ground out to short.
The Ridgerunners could’t manage much of any offense off of Miami starter Sam Neal, stranding five runners over the first four innings.
Grove finally got their first run in the fifth when Kody Stephenson led off with a walk and eventually scored on a double by Erick Ryan. The Ridgerunners had a chance to get more with runners on second and third, but Neal’s fifth strikeout of the game ended the inning.
“[Neal] was wild around the strike zone but he threw enough strikes to keep us out of rhythm a little bit,” Bouher said. “We had some chances with runners on and couldn’t get the big hit and we finally got one to go and it opened things up for us a little bit.”
That big one came in the sixth inning and gave Grove the lead for good. Jake Spychalski pounded a double off the left field wall and was chased home by a Ty Phillips single to tie the score at two. Scottie Spicer later reached on an error before Russ pulled one over the right field wall to give the Ridgerunners a 5-2 lead.
Grove would add another run when Kaden Livermore hit an RBI single later in the inning. That would be more than enough for Barton, who struck out five and allowed six hits to get the win.
“We’ve got a mature team and maybe we don’t come out with the intensity we’d like to start with,” Bouher said. “We’ll take two in a row here and build on it and get ready for next week.”
The Ridgerunners will play at Vinita on Tuesday before hosting the Grand Lake Classic beginning on Thursday.
