FREMONT – There were positive moments to take away from Ross’ baseball season-opener Monday, to be sure.
But one did not have to look hard to find missed opportunities as well.
Trey Ickes
The Little Giants had the table set to begin the season in walk-off fashion Monday evening. Instead of celebrating a victory, however, Ross left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning then saw the game slip away in a 6-4 eight-inning loss to Tiffin Columbian.
“There is a lot of good things that came out of today and a lot of bad things,” Ross coach Jared King said. “Still need to find that string of hits in key situations, but I thought we did a nice job of getting runs across. We got down 3-0 early but they didn’t hang their heads, they chipped away and came back.”
Columbian put together four-straight hits in the second inning to jump out to a 3-0 lead. All the Tornadoes’ second-inning hits came with two outs. Ross had trouble getting out of innings throughout the day as Columbian put eight runners on base with two outs in an inning.
“That’s going to happen from time to time but we want to limit that, that happened a little too much today,” King said. “And we’re putting ourselves in bad spots.”
Ross got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI-double by Noah Hotz, scoring Luke O’Brien from first base. Hotz later scored on an RBI walk by Garrett Schneider.
Noah Hotz
The Little Giants then took the lead in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a bases-loaded walk issued to Braxton White, scoring O’Brien, and a wild pitch which send Hotz home for the go-ahead run.
Columbian tied the game in the top of the sixth-inning, setting the stage for potential late-inning heroics from the Little Giants.
In the bottom of the seventh, Josiah Cook and Brandon Schneider worked back-to-back walks then Karson Wojdyla was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Ross with one out. But back-to-back popouts to short ended the threat and sent the game into extra innings.
King said he believes Ross will make good in such situations as the Little Giants gets acclimated to live pitching
“I think that’ll come with repetition,” King said. “You’re half an inch off on hitting the ball and that sends it further on into the outfield rather than the cut of the field and that gives us a shot of tagging and scoring and winning the game.
“I have faith in 1 through 9 being able to do what they need to do,” he added. “It’s early in the year, they’re still getting used to seeing live pitching, we haven’t seen live pitching other than our scrimmages, this spring hasn’t been good to us weather-wise.”
Columbian put its first three batters on to load the bases in the eighth inning and scored on a base hit up the middle and on a sacrifice fly to right to score the go-ahead runs.
Ross starting pitcher Trey Ickes had solid day on the mound. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, thought he walked six with five hits, he also struck out 10 on his way to giving up three earned runs.
“I want to see a little more consistently from him,” King said. “I thought he did a nice job, his stuff looked good today. …I was real happy with what he did today and for going as far as he did.”
Ross managed just five hits Monday. Though the Little Giants showed a good eye by working 11 walks, King wants his team to be more aggressive at the plate.
“Even to the end they were taking pretty decent approaches,” King said. I’d like to get more aggressive early in the count, I thought we were a little too lethargic early in the count, seeing too many good pitches go by then getting into a defensive swing situation. I’d like to be more aggressive early on but, overall, nothing to hang your head on.”
Ross (0-1) returns to the diamond Tuesday as they Little Giants host Clyde at 4:30.
2023 Boys Golf Team
| Player Name | Grade |
|---|---|
| Aidan Autullo | 10 |
| Canaan Bower | 09 |
| Parker Brown | 11 |
| Max Durnwald | 09 |
| Kollin Frasure | 10 |
| Brandon Fry | 10 |
| Braylon Jordan | 10 |
| Maxwell Kelly | 12 |
| Evan Kindred | 11 |
| Jace Miller | 10 |
| Robert Rich, Jr. | 11 |
| Tyler Royster | 11 |
| Quinn Wolf | 9 |