Ringgold rallies for PIAA Class 4A 1st round win over St. Marys

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, June 4, 2018 | 7:12 PM

PUNXSUTAWNEY — Ringgold coach Don Roberts knew his team would have its hands full with St. Marys pitcher Nate Beimel.

Beimel, the nephew of former Pirates pitcher Joe Beimel, kept Ringgold off the board for five innings before leaving after reaching 101 pitches. The PIAA adopted a pitch count rule in 2017 where a pitcher cannot throw more than 100 pitches in a game.

Ringgold then rallied from an early deficit and held on for a 4-3 victory in the opening round of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs at Kuntz Memorial Field.

“Our game plan was to get his pitch count up,” Roberts said. “We got him up to 50 pitches in the first two innings, and we knew we'd have a better shot against their second guy.”

Bobby Boyer smacked a two-run double in the sixth inning to give Ringgold (17-4) a 2-1 lead, and the Rams scored two more as Koby Bubash squeezed home a run and winning pitcher Ryan Varley tripled home the other.

St. Marys (15-7) scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh before relief pitcher Chase Angotti got Beimel to line out to end the game.

“It was a little closer than it needed to be,” Roberts said. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

“Ryan did a great job. He kept their batters off balance.”

Varley pitched six innings with nine strikeouts. Beimel had 11 strikeouts.

The WPIAL runner-up Rams will play WPIAL third-place finisher Hopewell in the quarterfinals Thursday at a time and site to be determined.

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.

Tags: Ringgold