Walking off the field after Ripon’s season-ending 10-9 walk-off loss to Rosendale-Brandon are, from left, Henry Willett, Ethan Schuld, Shay Otto, Jaxson Banks and Kacin Vande Berg.
The Ripon American Legion baseball team was three outs away from advancing to the championship game of the Green Lake Regional Tournament last week Saturday, where it would have to beat St. Mary’s Springs twice.
Unfortunately for Ripon, it ran out of gas and pitching.
Ripon squandered a 9-6 lead over Rosendale-Brandon in the bottom of the seventh inning and lost 10-9 on a bases-loaded walk. The walk was the fourth of the inning issued by Ripon, to go along with three singles.
Ripon used three pitchers in the inning who had pitched sparingly in Ethan Schuld, Shay Otto and Max Belling.
With the loss, Ripon was eliminated from the double-elimination tournament. It finishes its season with a 5-10 record.
“When you get into a tournament like that, you don’t get to the final games unless you win,” Ripon head coach Paul Trochinski said. “As a coach, you try to play to win and you end up burning up pitching faster than you necessarily wanted to. And I think part of that last game was we literally ran out of gas as well. We played four games in three days, and very hot games.
“… That was Rosendale’s third game, so we did have a little bit of a disadvantage. I’m not blaming that, but it definitely plays a role in it because we had a whole game of pitchers that we threw compared to them.”
Dayton Baird makes contact with a pitch against Rosendale-Brandon.
Ripon jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Rosendale-Brandon in the top of the first inning, when Jacob Riddick plated Mason Killam on a sacrifice fly, Henry Willett scored on a wild pitch and Adam Sina brought home Brett Bock on an RBI single.
Rosendale-Brandon responded with two runs in both the second and third innings to take a 4-3 advantage, which is where the score stayed until Ripon scored four runs in the fifth as Sina singled home two runs, Kacin Vande Berg drove in one with a single and Belling scored on an error.
Ripon added two more runs in the top of the sixth on a Riddick RBI groundout and an Otto sacrifice fly to stake Ripon to a 9-4 advantage entering the bottom of the sixth inning.
Rosendale-Brandon got two of those runs back, however, in the bottom of the sixth and scored the four runs in the seventh to win the game and end Ripon’s season.
Schuld picked up the loss on the mound as he gave up five runs, three earned, on four hits and two walks. Otto also pitched in the seventh and walked both batters he faced, while Belling allowed a hit and the game-winning walk.
Vande Berg started the game for Ripon and went five innings. He gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks.
Ripon survives two elimination games
Jacob Riddick delivers a pitch against Green Lake. He pitched six scoreless innings.
Ripon survived two elimination games last week Friday to give itself a chance to face Rosendale-Brandon.
It defeated host Green Lake 4-1 in the first game of the day, while topping Markesan 7-5 in the nightcap.
“It was just a matter of guys stepping up to positions that either they didn’t play or just stepping up in general, to be a leader, to hit the ball,” Trochinski said of what led to the two victories, noting Ripon was without two regular starters in Gannon Stellmacher and Conor Diedrich. “… Our defense meshed. I know we had errors, but we didn’t have nearly the number of errors in the regional tournament that we did throughout the year.
“… You throw some offense out there and you throw a solid defense and you’re going to win some games and that’s what we did.”
Mason Killam fires a throw to first base in an attempt to turn a double play.
The game against Green Lake was a pitcher’s dual, with Ripon scoring the first run of the contest in the top of the sixth inning on a Bock RBI double.
Ripon added three insurance runs in the seventh on a Cameron Hahn RBI triple, Dayton Baird RBI single and Willett RBI double to take a 4-0 advantage entering the bottom half of the frame.
With Riddick reaching his pitch limit to end the sixth inning, Sina came in and Green Lake promptly loaded the bases with a single, double and walk. With the tying run coming to the plate and no outs, Ripon turned the ball over to Willett. The incoming Ripon High School senior was able to limit the damage to just one run to help Ripon claim the victory.
Riddick picked up the win as he did not give up on a run on five hits and five walks. He struck out five batters.
Willett then started the second game and received some early run support as Ripon scored three runs in the top of the first on a Bock RBI single and a Sina two-run single.
Ripon added single tallies in the third and fourth innings as Riddick scored on a wild pitch in the third and Jaxson Banks came across to score on an error in the fourth to make it 5-0.
After giving up just four hits in the first four innings, Willett left the game with arm soreness and was relieved by Sina.
The incoming Ripon High School junior struggled in his first inning as Markesan scored five runs on four hits, two walks and a hit by pitch to tie the game.
Sina also allowed a pair of runners in the sixth, but stranded them at second and third base.
With the score tied in the top of the seventh, Ripon came up clutch as it pushed across a pair of runs to take the lead. Otto then closed the door in the bottom of the frame, working around a single, error and walk to earn the save.
Ripon won the game despite being out-hit 11-4, with Killam, Bock, Riddick and Sina collecting the hits. It did draw nine walks, was hit by two pitches and took advantage of two Markesan errors.
Ripon drops opening game to Springs
Henry Willett goes airborne as a St. Mary’s Springs baserunner slides underneath him.
Ripon dropped the opening game of the Green Lake Class A Regional Tournament 12-3 to the St. Mary’s Springs Ledgers last week Thursday afternoon.
After scoring a run in the top of the first inning, Ripon gave up seven runs in the bottom of the frame and could never recover.
It got one run back in the top of the second, but gave it right back and then allowed three runs in the third.
Despite being down 11-2 after three innings, Ripon didn’t quit as it managed to last all seven innings.
Vande Berg started the game for Ripon and struggled with his command as he walked three of the five batters he faced, while also giving up a hit and having another batter reach on an error. Killam didn’t fare much better as he gave up six runs on nine hits and two walks in three innings. Schuld pitched the final three innings, giving up just a run on three hits.
Ripon was out-hit just 13-10 in the game, with Willett, Bock and Gannon Stellmacher leading the way with two hits apiece. Killam, Otto, Sina and Belling also recorded hits.
Future of the team
While the walk-off loss to Rosendale-Brandon stings, Trochinski noted the future is bright for Ripon as it will be able to return a majority of its team next season.
Ripon High School class of 2021 graduates Conor Diedrich and Schuld played their final games, while class of 2022 graduates Cameron Hahn, Brett Bock and possibly Gannon Stellmacher also put the Ripon jersey on for the final time.
Dayton Baird, who also is a member of the class of 2022, is eligible and plans to return next summer.
“We definitely have some younger talent there and those guys are going to get some more playing time,” Trochinski said.
He noted there are incoming juniors and seniors who didn’t get a chance to play a lot because of some older players.
“We have a lot of things to look forward to next year in the younger athletes and then it sounds like they have some pretty good incoming freshmen as well,” Trochinski said.
While the Ripon head coach believes the future is bright, he added that he is thankful for the seniors and those who returned after graduating last year.
“I think we had a fun year and even more fun tournament, being able to win two games for them,” Trochinski said.
He also was thankful for Ripon High School class of 2022 graduate Christian Grunert, who kept stats this year, and Christian’s family — Sara, Terry and Miya — who attended pretty much every game this year and helped in various ways.
“Their dedication to the Legion baseball team is outstanding and it goes from Christian to Miya and to Terry and Sara,” Trochinski said. “They’re at almost every single game and they feel really bad when they’re not. That’s dedication.”
