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After the first nine games of the season, the Ridgefield High baseball team couldn’t lose and was sitting at the top of the league standings. But the Tigers then hit a speed bump, dropping three of four games, including losses to Greenwich and Fairfield Ludlowe on back-to-back days last week. To its credit, though, Ridgefield recovered quickly. The Tigers ended the brief slide with road wins over Staples on Monday and Wilton on Tuesday, raising their record to 12-3 overall and 11-3 in the FCIAC. Ridgefield may have righted the ship with its last two victories, but head coach Tony Wilmot is still disappointed with the way his team performed in the three losses. “The tough part is that our three losses were all baseball games that we could’ve and probably should’ve won and this one was no exception,” he said after the 4-2 loss to Ludlowe last Thursday. “This was one I think we should’ve won and that’s a little frustrating. I want somebody to beat us.” Both teams had their aces on the mound with Sam Robertson facing Ludlowe’s Kevin Keys. And the two pitchers lived up to the billing, breezing through the first four innings. Ludlowe would get on the board first in the top of the fifth. A leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt put a runner on second with one out. After Robertson struck out the next batter on three pitches, he gave up a bloop single to right field that bounced on the chalk and gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead. But the Tigers would bounce back with two of their own in the bottom of the frame. After two quick outs, Gilbert Alicea hit a single to right and stole second. Joe Martire followed with a walk, bringing Robertson to the plate. Robertson delivered a hard-hit line-drive single to right field and Wilmot waived Alicea home. Alicea got in under the tag in a bang-bang play. With Bobby Dunphy at the plate, a passed ball allowed Martire to score to give Ridgefield a 2-1 lead. After a quick sixth inning, Robertson took the mound for the top of the seventh looking to seal Ridgefield’s biggest win of the season. Robertson allowed a leadoff single and then threw high to first when the next batter laid down a bunt. A solid single up the middle tied the score, 2-2, and an intentional walk loaded the bases with nobody out. A sacrifice fly to right field scored another run and then the wheels fell off for Robertson. The next batter hit a tailor-made, double-play ball right back to Robertson, who turned and threw it into center field. The run made it 4-2 and the Tigers went quietly in the bottom of the seventh to end the game. “You got to field your position,” Wilmot said. “We made two throwing errors. You can’t give a team like that five outs.” “Hey, this is a good ballclub, they have a good pitcher,” Wilmot added. “But you take a 2-1 lead in the sixth, with Sam on the mound, you think that’s pretty safe ... He might have tired a little, he was at 103 pitches. But this was his to win or lose.” Robertson gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits in his seven innings. He walked four and struck out nine. Keys one-upped Robertson for Ludlowe, scattering four hits in his seven innings. He walked three and struck out six. “That was a huge two-out base hit by Sam,” Wilmot said of Robertson’s clutch RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. “But you got to seize that momentum. Good baseball teams seize that momentum and run with it. We gave that momentum back to them and that’s a recipe for disaster.” Sloppy defense and an inability to throw strikes doomed Ridgefield in its 10-7 loss to Greenwich the day before. The Cardinals scored in every inning but the sixth, including four runs in the top of the third to take a 7-2 lead. The Tigers clawed their way back into it with two in the third and one in the fourth to cut the deficit to 8-5, but Ridgefield couldn’t muster enough hits in the end. Hayden Metz started on the mound and lasted just two innings. He gave up six runs (four earned) on six hits, walked five and struck out two. Sean O’Dea pitched the third and gave up a run, and Andrew Rebhorn threw the final four innings, giving up three runs on three hits. Metz didn’t let the bad outing get to him as he returned to form in the Tigers’ 8-2 win over Staples on Monday. He gave up two runs on seven hits in the complete-game win, walking two and striking out seven. O’Dea led the offense with four hits in four at-bats, including a double and a triple. He also had two RBIs and two runs scored. Josh Lavardera chipped in with two singles and two RBIs, and Zack Shea had an RBI-single and a run scored. Robertson also bounced back from the tough loss to Ludlowe with a dominating seven-inning performance in the Tigers’ 3-2 win over Wilton on Tuesday. But Austin Gambee was just as good for the Warriors. Wilton scratched out a run each in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the score, 2-2, and send the game into extras. In the top of the ninth, Jay Lavardera’s sacrifice fly put the Tigers ahead and Sean O’Dea, on in relief of Robertson, was able to wiggle out of a jam in the bottom of the frame to secure the win. An error and a bloop single to center put runners on first and third with one out for Wilton, but O’Dea induced the next batter to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. O’Dea picked up the win with two hitless innings. He walked one and struck out three. Robertson gave up two runs on six hits in seven innings. He walked five and struck out eight. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
