Sophomore Meddings fires shutout to give Rams 1st NCC win

Riverdale’s Tyler Miller makes a throw to first base to throw out a runner in Friday’s game against Upper Sandusky. The Rams defeated the Falcons, 4-0, in the North Central Conference showdown.

MOUNT BLANCHARD — Andy Meddings provided Upper Sandusky baseball with its first ever North Central Conference victory as the sophomore tossed a two-hit shutout in a 4-0 win at Riverdale’s Falcon Field on Friday.
Meddings struck out six, while only allowing a pair of walks and two hits.
“He did a really good job for a sophomore,” Rams coach Keith Miller said. “He’s had really good outings before and hopefully he keeps it going.”
Heading into the final inning, Meddings (2-1) said he knew what was personally at stake.
“I just wanted to keep it going,” he said. “I just didn’t want to ruin it. The warm weather was good and I was feeling it. It feels pretty good. I had a good defense and I couldn’t have done it by myself.”
With two outs and Riverdale’s Dillon Farrow standing at third base, Meddings caught Paul Frey looking at strike three to close out the game.
Early on, Farrow and Meddings were dueling each other, putting up scoreless innings through the first four.
The Rams (2-7, 1-2 NCC) struck first when Cameron Crawford singled and continued on to second on an errant throw from third base. He then moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt and beat a throw home on a Mark Walton fielder’s choice to shortstop.
With two outs, Adam Duress walked and Justin Mattix hit an eye-level pitch near the left field pole, one-hopping the fence for a ground-rule double.
“Basically, they were given a chance to see their pitcher a couple of times and made some adjustments,” Miller said.
Mattix finished 2 for 4 on the afternoon.
Upper Sandusky got two more runs in the next frame as Daniel Newell walked, moved to second on a bunt and scored on a Crawford single. Tristan Reichelderfer singled thereafter and Mark Walton singled to bring Crawford home.
Crawford finished 2 for 3 with the pair of runs scored and Walton added a walk and stolen base.
Farrow went six innings, striking out seven, while allowing seven hits and three walks. Three of the four runs were earned.
Paul Frey shut down the Rams in the seventh inning by striking out a pair. He also added his team’s second hit in the fifth inning.
Riverdale’s best chance to score came in the second inning as Wolfe singled with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and Farrow followed with a walk.
Meddings escaped the jam with a strikeout and groundout to second.
“Two hits is not going to get you any wins,” Riverdale coach Denny Pees said. “We’ve been hitting the ball in every ballgame, but only two hits tonight is not good enough.”
Upper Sandusky won a junior varsity game, 18-12, against Bucyrus. Alex Kenner was 5 for 5 with a grand slam, five RBIs and four runs scored while finishing a double short of hitting for the cycle. Sam Plott and Ross Dible had three hits each.
Riverdale (4-7, 0-2 NCC) plays in a doubleheader at Lima Central Catholic at 11 a.m. today. Upper Sandusky travels to Lucas for a game at 5 p.m. Monday.

Score by innings
Upper Sandusky    000    022    0    — 4 7 1
Riverdale    000     000    0    — 0 2 2
WP: Meddings (2-1); LP: Farrow.
2B: Mattix (US).

By PATRICK MASSARA
Staff writer

Posted by Daily Chief on April 14, 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry