The old cliché in baseball is you can never have enough pitching.
That’s certainly true for the Grove Ridgerunners as they cross the halfway point of a promising season. With 18 games down and 16 left, the Ridgerunners have a genuine ace in senior Gibson Russ. Russ, who has signed to play at Butler Community College, is having a breakthrough season, winning four of his first six starts with 38 strikeouts and a 2.25 ERA.
But for the Ridgerunners to make a run at the state tournament, they’ll need more than one pitcher. Winning a regional tournament will require at least three wins in two days.
If last weekend’s work by a couple of underclassmen at the Tiger-Zebra Classic in Claremore is any indication, they may have the arms they need for postseason success. On Thursday junior Ty Phillips held his own against second-ranked Claremore, giving up three earned runs in five-plus innings in a 5-4 loss.
In Saturday’s finale in the third place game against the Wardogs, sophomore Cordale Bardale was equally effective, going the distance in a 6-3 win, running his record to 3-1 on the season.
“Ty Phillips was outstanding against Claremore,” Bouher said. “They’re number two in the state for a reason; they’re a good team. Cordale pitched great [Saturday]. We’ve got two or three guys that we have confidence in and we’ll start building from there.”
Russ picked up the loss in a game at Cascia Hall last Tuesday, but bounced back with two solid innings in relief to hold off Joplin in a 9-8 win on Friday. Erick Ryan has also been effective in a relief role this season, not allowing an earned run in 11 innings to this point.
With a record of 11-7 heading into Thursday’s game against Miami to open the Grand Lake Baseball Classic, including a 5-0 record in District 5A-3, the Ridgerunners are sitting in a good position. Having snapped a seven-game losing streak, Grove has some momentum heading into their home tournament before resuming district play next Thursday at Collinsville. The Ridgerunners will finish out the regular season with nine district games. A top-two finish in the district will insure that Grove will host a regional playoff tournament next month.
“We’ve got a big week coming up with our tournament,” Bouher said. “It’ll be good to play a home game. It’s been three weeks since we played at our place.”
It’s no secret the Ridgerunners can hit; with a team average of .301 Grove is averaging nearly 6.4 runs per game. Along with that has been a defense that has improved, eliminating – for the most part – the errors and unearned runs that plagued the team during a 13-21 campaign last season. If they can keep finding effective pitching, the state tournament could be in sight next month.
