Riverview runs away with key section victory over Sewickley Academy

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, April 27, 2021 | 6:48 PM

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The Riverview baseball team was ready to run wild Tuesday in the second game of a Section 3-A series with Sewickley Academy.

The Raiders rolled to a 16-1 mercy rule victory, racking up 13 stolen bases and 13 hits, scoring two runs in both the first and second inning before exploding for 12 runs in the third.

“We haven’t been hitting, and we broke out of that today,” coach Bill Gras said with a laugh. “It was really big, especially with two big ones coming up this weekend against Leechburg. If we can knock those two off, then with Springdale next week, it looks like we could get second place in the section.”

On Monday, the Raiders (5-3, 4-2) dropped a close one to Sewickley (6-2, 5-1), a 6-5 contest that came down to a few errors on the basepaths, and they felt like they should’ve won the game. So, coming into Tuesday, Gras said his players were fired up to get one back.

“That was a game we should’ve won, and we let it slip away from us, and we weren’t letting it happen today on our home field,” Gras said. “They don’t come into our house and beat us. Right now, we are undefeated at home, and we are going to keep it that way.”

“This picked us up, and now these guys are enthusiastic and they are ready to go to practice tomorrow and they’ll be ready to go.”

Senior shortstop Ryan Aber wasn’t at the game Monday, but he could tell coming into Tuesday that his teammates were ready to bounce back.

“Every team has their group chat and everything like that, and I could definitely tell from the way people were talking that they wanted this one bad,” Aber said.

The Raiders showed that throughout the game. Aber went 2 for 3, including a towering double in the first that powered the two-run inning. Luke Migely singled twice, drove in two runs and stole three bases. Dan Roupas, Dom Scassera and Jake Loughren powered Riverview’s 12-run inning as they all had two-run hits in the frame.

Loughren finished the game with two singles and three RBIs. Roupas went 3 for 3 and drove in three runs.

Junior right-hander Vince Shook earned the victory for the Raiders, throwing three innings of three-hit ball while striking out two.

The big piece of the game plan for the Raiders was their aggressiveness on the basepaths as they tallied double-digit stolen bases and didn’t get thrown out all game. In the third inning alone, the Raiders stole eight bags.

“We felt like we could steal all day and run all day and we did,” Gras said of their aggressive mindset. “That’s our philosophy. I don’t care who we are playing. We are not that good of a hitting team, so we have to make things happen on the basepaths. We have to force them into errors, and that’s what we did today.”

The Raiders are now hoping to build on their first double-digit outing since April 7 when they finish off their section schedule against Leechburg and Springdale.

“This was going to be a big week for us,” Aber said. “We want to tie for section with Eden by sweeping this whole week, but we lost yesterday, so we just have to finish on a high note.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Riverview, Sewickley Academy