DE GRAFF — It wasn’t a pretty site for Riverside in a nonconference game against Riverside on Friday.
Beyond the gray clouds, rain, snow and wind that left players’ hands nearly numb by the end of six innings, the Pirates committed nine errors, which Fort Loramie took advantage of.
After the Pirates scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth, Fort Loramie answered with two in the sixth to earn a 14-3 run-rule win.
It’s the third run-rule win of the week for Fort Loramie (4-0), which is off to a hot start under first-year head coach Jeff Sanders. The Redskins opened the season last week with a win over Greater Catholic League power Chaminade-Julienne and beat Fairlawn, Fairborn and Riverside by a combined 43-4 this week.
“We have guys that are producing from top to bottom in our lineup,” Sanders said. “Great pitching, too, and getting great pitching, we’re putting pressure on them offensively. It’s hard to play in this (weather), but we’ve out-pitched our opponent in pretty much every game so far, and that’s been a key.”
The Redskins had 10 hits and took advantage of Riverside’s errors, most of which were throwing mistakes.
“If you’re aggressive and you’re good base runners, you like to think you have the advantage in weather like this,” Sanders said. “Fundamentally, I thought we were really good defensively to keep them from running and to take advantage of the weather, and offensively we took advantage of them. We stole a couple of bases and they threw the ball away, with it being wet.”
The Pirates dropped to 1-3 with the loss. They’ve been able to get runs across for the most part but have struggled defensively. They’ve had at least three errors in each of their losses, including an 18-7 loss to Fairborn last Saturday at Wright State.
Riverside coach Scott Mann said if the team can lessen its errors, it can play with the caliber of Fort Loramie.
“We preach it every day,” Mann said. “We’ve got to get 21 outs, and when you give up extra outs to a team like Fort Loramie, you’re going to lose. We seem to put the ball in play all right. The offense really hasn’t been a problem. It’s just making the routine plays, and we’ve got to clean that up.”
Fort Loramie scored three runs in the top of second, but Riverside added one in the bottom of the inning. The Redskins quickly took control from there, though.
Carter Mescher hit an RBI single in the third to put Fort Loramie up 4-1, and the Redskins then added two runs after throwing errors by Riverside.
The Redskins added on a passed ball and an error in the fourth, in addition to two runs after an RBI single by Eli Rosengarten and a sacrifice flyout by Mike Hoying.
CJ Billing was 2 for 4 for Fort Loramie with 2 RBIs and Ratermann was 2 for 2. Ratermann earned the win on the mound. He allowed two earned runs off four hits and had three strikeouts in five innings.
Trey Lane and Harley Asbury doubled for Riverside.
