Playoffs on the Brink, Ridge Loses Another Close One

Lady luck has been cruel to the Ridge Red Devils baseball team this season, which is now 2-5 in one-run games with a 3-2 loss to Franklin on Tuesday.

Ridge also lost to Hillsborough, Voorhees, North Hunterdon and Montgomery by one run this year, and the game against Hillsborough, along with two others, were won by Ridge's opponents in the last inning.

Ridge is now 8-11 on the season, and must win their three remaining games this week to qualify for an automatic bid to the state playoffs for finishing with a .500 record or better.

Greg Fazio got the start against Franklin, in a game that was held off with a significant rain delay at the start. Fazio struggled out of the gate, giving up a leadoff double to Franklin, who scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the first.

Ridge came close to tying up the score in the top of the fourth. Jake Hotz, who was 2-3 in the game, hit a leadoff single and stole second. Hotz scored on an RBI double by Ridge first baseman Rob McCarthy. Red Devils' third baseman Charles Dennis knocked in the team's second run with a single to score McCarthy.

Dennis went to second on a wild pitch, but a flyout, caught stealing, and strikeout in succession helped Franklin get out of the jam.

Ridge came close to taking the lead again in the fifth. With two outs, Ridge second baseman Andrew Graziano, Fazio and Hotz all hit a singles in succession, but miscommunication on the basepaths led to Graziano getting thrown out at home, killing the rally.

"We didn't play very well for the first couple of innings, we handed them a few runs and we tried to bail our way out of it, but that doesn't always happen," Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell said after the game. "You have to play at a high level every inning, and we didn't."

Ridge will face Gill St. Bernards in a make-up game today at home, starting at 3:45. The team also plays Delaware Valley Regional on Thursday at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, the home of the Somerset Patriots, and Phillpsburg away on Friday before the cutoff point for automatic qualification to the state playoffs.