Baseball: Ridgewood surprises Glenbard South
Harbingers of bad luck or misfortune are not always evident in the first batter.
Underdog Ridgewood saw a spark early in Wednesday's baseball game and never let up. Glenbard South was chasing the rest of the night.
The Raiders spotted upstart Ridgewood 3 early runs and forged a tie only to be undone by a fielding mistake that led to the 4-3 loss in a Class 3A St. Patrick sectional semifinal at Kerry Woods Cubs Park in Chicago. The top-seeded Raiders (25-14) could not alter the narrative.
"That's the breaks of baseball," Glenbard South coach Marco Eufrasio said. "You get into a single-elimination baseball tournament and you have one bad day and you're out. That is tough. We had our sights set on Joliet, but it did not work out.
"That is why this game is beautiful, awesome and frustrating."
Glenbard South (25-14) watched the Rebels (13-18) run out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. Ridgewood proved opportunistic, whether in the form of walks or sharply hit singles they generated runs from.
By contrast the Raiders created some early opportunities but stranded three runners in scoring position in the first three innings. They failed to take advantage of loading the bases in the bottom of the second inning.
"We hit the ball hard all game and nothing fell in," infielder John McMahon said. "They scored a couple early, and I thought to myself we could come back from this. Everyone played for everyone around them.
"It was sad to see it end like that."
Glenbard South finally discovered its groove in the bottom of the fourth inning.
McMahon led off with a bunt single, igniting an attack punctuated by a monster run-scoring triple to right center by Mason Barnick. Jacob Cyrus followed with a hard single down the third-base line to pull the Raiders within 3-2.
Mason Wilson completed the comeback by forcing a walk with the bases loaded that pulled the Raiders even.
"Our offense started to find its stroke, and I thought we were going to be OK," Eufrasio said.
Ridgewood's Frank Magnelli scored the game-winner off a hard single. He reached third on a misplayed ball into the Raiders' outfield.
Cyrus (7-1) suffered his first loss on the mound.
More impressively, Magnelli earned the victory, throwing hard and accurate. He retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced, allowing just one walk.
"He was a little bit faster, but he was not as good with the breaking ball," McMahon said. "I thought we hit him well but we didn't find the hole.
"Early on we had the bases loaded and we could not get a run across. I thought we could get over that, but in the end we weren't able. This could have been our day but, unfortunately, it wasn't."