Sports
Ridge Offense Stalls Against Phillipsburg in 10-3 Loss
The Red Devils missed team captain and cleanup hitter Charles Dennis, who was out sick.
The Ridge Red Devils baseball team dropped to 1-3 after losing to the Phillipsburg Stateliners on Tuesday afternoon, 10-3. Sophomore Mike Ciesla, just called up from junior varsity, led the charge for the Stateliners, pitching the entire game and holding Ridge to three runs.
"I felt good," said Ciesla. "My goal was to not walk many people, and I only walked one."
Ciesla's specialty seemed to be his ability to make batters ground out. He only struck out two in the game, but Ridge still struggled to get on base.
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"On my travel team I focused on throwing downhill, which leads to a lot of ground-outs," said Ciesla.
Phillipsburg got ahead early, scoring three runs in the top of the first. They held the lead for the rest of the game. Ridge catcher Tyler Roseberry was especially dangerous at-bat – he hit an RBI double in the first inning, another double in the third, a ground-rule RBI double in the fifth that might have been a home-run if the field had a fence, and a double in the sixth.
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"Anywhere else, it would have most likely been out," said Roseberry of the ground-rule double. "On the bus before the game, I said that three people would breakout today, and that I would be one of them."
With one of Ridge's best hitters and captain, senior Charles Dennis, sick and sitting out, the Red Devils really struggled to get any offense going. They never scored more than one run in any inning.
The sixth inning started off well for Ridge, with a hard-hit ball by J.B. Kole to lead off the inning, followed by a single to right field from Rob McCarthy. But then Ciesla made the next three batters ground out, just as he had been the whole game, and only one Ridge player managed to score in the inning.
"I didn't expect us to play that poorly," said Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell. "We didn't play defense, didn't throw strikes, and didn't hit the ball."
Ridge's best defensive inning was the seventh, when Tim Falato came in and delivered the only 1-2-3 inning of the afternoon for Ridge.
The Red Devils next game is at Hillsborough on Thursday, April 8, 3:45 p.m.
