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South Range doubles up Girard in D-III semifinal
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South Range pitcher Greg Dunhan delivers during Wednesday’s Division III district semifinal against Girard at Cene Park in Struthers. The Raiders battered the Indians, 10-5, to advance to today’s final against Ursuline.
By CURTIS PULLIAM
STRUTHERS
South Range didn’t have its best game defensively, but the Raiders made up for it with plenty of offense as they doubled up the Girard Indians, 10-5, Wednesday in a Division III baseball district semifinal at Bob Cenbe Park.
“We jumped ahead early, I’m very proud of that,” Raiders head coach Jim Hanek said. “It’s something we talked about, wanting to be patient, not help the pitcher and we were able to get some early baserunners.”
The Raiders were lead by seniors Dan Macinga and Zach Thorpe, who each collected two hits and two RBIs in the contest. Junior Josh Fromel added two hits as well. Senior Bill Goodall chipped in with a two-run double in the first inning.
The Raiders were facing Girard starter Kyle Harris, who entered the game with a record of 7-0. Harris wound up lasting just 12/3 innings for the Indians (20-5).
Macinga says that seeing Harris last year in the state tournament helped with this time around.
“I’ve played with Kyle, played against, so I sort of have a little advantage against him,” Macinga said. “I know he likes to pound the strike zone, so I’m just taking as many cuts as I can during batting practice and just looking to take the ball wherever he pitches it.”
Hanek watched his team commit a few errors which allowed the Indians to score four runs in the third inning, to cut the South Range lead to 7-5. The Raiders eventually settled down and kept the Indians off the board for the last four innings.
“Really proud of the way they fought back after Girard rallied and tightened the game up,” Hanek said. “I was really impressed with what my players were able to do from there on in.”
The Raiders (22-3) scored their first three runs with their first three batters of the game. Both Thorpe and Macinga walked against Harris, and then Goodall came up, slamming a double in the gap to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead. Later in the inning, Goodall scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Tyler Rothbauer to make it 3-0.
South Range added three more runs in the second, highlighted by Macinga and Thorpe, who both had run-scoring hits.
Hanek liked his team’s approach against Harris.
“We know he’s a very good pitcher, throws hard, good off-speed stuff,” Hanek said. “We didn’t want to help him and that was the thing. We did a very good job of that.”
South Range sophomore Greg Dunham threw all seven innings and struck out five for the victory.
I thought Greg did a phenomenal job,” Hanek said. “A lot of first pitch strikes, got ahead of hitters, really pounded the strike zone well. No walks. That’s a tremendous job. I couldn’t be more pleased with his effort.”
Girard’s tournament run ended, but Indians head coach Aaron Alejars was proud of his team.
“We gave it our all,” Alejars said. “We fought and fought and fought and believed until the very end and that’s something we preached about all year.”
Alejars believed he gave his team the best chance to win by starting Harris.
“Kyle’s our best pitcher, and he just didn’t have his good stuff there, and they hit ’em,” Alejars said. “He got rattled a little bit, I think. He’s our top dog. We feel most confident with him on the mound, without a doubt, he’s our guy there.”
Girard’s offense showed signs of life with a four-run third inning, aided by a couple of South Range errors. But the Indians came up short the rest of the way.
“We just weren’t able to get our leadoff guy on,” Alejars said.
South Range moves on to the district final against Ursuline at 6:30 p.m. today at Bob Cene Park.
Girard will play at Campbell on Friday to finish All-American Conference play.