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St. Marys' Dyllan Fink (11) chases Marion Local's Ethan Heitkamp back to first base.
ST. MARYS - Marion Local's seventh-inning rally came up just short Monday evening as St. Marys held on for a 6-5 victory at a rain-soaked K.C. Geiger Park.
The Flyers went into the top of the seventh trailing 6-4 against St. Marys starting pitcher Luke Rammel. Ian Rindler drew a one-out walk to get things started. Ethan Heitkamp followed with a bloop single, and Hayden Poeppelman walked to load the bases with one out.
Bryant Meier then hit a line drive up the middle that Rammel gloved for the second out. With Parker Hess at the plate, Rammel uncorked a wild pitch allowing Rindler to score, making it a one-run game.
When Hess walked to re-load the bases Rammel's night on the mound was done. Roughrider coach Adam Graves went to his bullpen and brought on Blake Dingledine.
Dingledine needed just one pitch to put out the fire. Damon Cramer swung at his first offering and grounded out to St. Marys Shortstop Dyllan Fink to end the game.
"I thought Rammel pitched a really, really good game. He gave us six and two-thirds," Graves said. "Blake comes on in a tight situation, throws one pitch and gets us out of it. That's a tough situation for a high school kid to deal with, but he trusted his defense and didn't try to do too much."
The Flyers did some two-out damage in the first inning to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Rindler reached on a one-out error. After a strikeout, out Poeppelman drew a walk. Bryant Meier then hit an infield grounder, and the St. Marys second baseman hesitated making the throw, allowing Meier to beat out the infield single to load the bases.
Rammel then walked the next two batters, forcing in two runs before getting out of the inning.
"What we have to clean up is giving teams too many opportunities," Graves said. "We shouldn't have given up any runs in that first inning. We have an error, then we have a play that we don't show a sense of urgency on and we open the door."
Rindler started on the mound for the Flyers and was cruising along until the fourth. Jacob Kaiser led off the bottom of the inning with a walk followed by a single off the fence from Preston Rupert.
St. Marys' Reese Howell stretches to make a catch against Marion Local.
Joel Kogge then dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line to load the bases. Aidan Meinerding chopped a single over the drawn-in infield for the first run. A sacrifice fly by Reese Howell made it 2-2. Rammel singled to score another run and Kasey Gross flew out to right field, allowing Meinerding to tag up and score making it 4-2.
"We had the infield in and they got a lucky hop," Marion Local coach Mitch Hays said. "What are the odds, in this rain, that the ball's going to hop eight foot in the air? That's what got them jump-started and they did a good job of getting hits after that."
The Riders picked up a run in the fifth. Rupert singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Meinerding's third hit of the game.
Marion Local's Damon Cramer (3) prepares to apply the tag on St. Marys' Kasey Gross during Monday's game at K.C. Geiger Park.
St. Marys added what proved to be some crucial two-out insurance in the sixth. Gross coaxed a two-out walk, went to third on a throwing error and scored a wild pitch to put the Riders up 6-4.
"We just didn't play well," Hays added. "We made a mistake in the outfield and gave them a run in the fifth, then the throwing in error in the sixth gave them a run and that was really the difference in the game."
Graves said the Rider offense continues to show improvement as the regular season winds down.
"Days like today you want to get the ball on the ground and hit line drives and make them have to field and throw because it's not easy to do that in these conditions," Graves said. "After a slow start, I thought we did a good job of that."
Both teams face busy schedules this week, with some league make-up games sprinkled in.
St. Marys (12-6) plays host to Fort Recovery tonight, then finishes out its Western Buckeye League schedule Thursday at Elida and Friday at Bath.
Marion Local (11-6) is at Russia tonight, hosts Coldwater Thursday and then wraps up its Midwest Athletic Conference schedule on Saturday at Minster.
