Ripon Christian picked up its first Trans Valley League win of the season Wednesday afternoon with a 6-2 victory over Ripon in a game that saw young pitchers making key contributions for both teams.
The first matchup of the season for the next-door neighbors saw Mateo Ceja take the ball for Ripon Christian (1-5, 7-9) against fellow sophomore Fabian Nuno for Ripon (2-3, 6-8). Both pitchers were up for the challenge in their first outings against their rivals.
Nuno went three plus innings, allowing just two earned runs and striking out five Ripon Christian batters. Not to be outdone was Ceja, who pitched five complete innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out one behind some great defense behind him.
“I thought the whole team really came out to play today,” Ceja said. “You could tell from the start our defense had a ton of energy, and they made a ton of plays to help me go deep into the game.”
Ripon Christian coach John DeVisser got key contributions defensively in the game from a freshman combination of third baseman Stadtler Postma and first baseman Talen Tameling to help calm the nerves of his sophomore hurler.
“If we can play catch, we are going to be a tough out in this league,” DeVisser said. “Last week, we gave up a mountain of unearned runs, and when you get down to it, baseball isn’t that hard of a game. Pitch, catch, and throw, and you come out on the right side a lot of times.”
The Knights did a lot of things right offensively, as well, a lot of which started at the top of the order with senior center fielder Jordan Luisi. Luisi’s lead-off hit in the top of the third got things going for Ripon Christian. He’d go on to steal second, before coming home on a bases loaded walk to catcher Noah Debruyn for the first run. Luisi would finish the game with two hits, three stolen bases, and three runs scored.
“The nice thing about Jordan is he doesn’t get thrown out,” DeVisser said. “He hasn’t been thrown out this year, so there’s a confidence there when he’s out there that he’s going to put our team in a better spot because of what he can do on the basepaths.”
The rest of the Knights followed Luisi’s lead, racking up nine total stolen bases in the game. That combined with eight free passes issued by Ripon pitching was a difficult combination to overcome for the visitors.
“Today was bad baseball all around for us,” Ripon coach Matt Gilmer said. “Our pitchers were putting a lot of pressure on themselves to execute, and when you do that, you leave some balls out of the zone and put our catchers in a tough spot to keep them from running.”
Ripon was paced offensively by sophomore Jack Peters, who had a hit and a run scored in the game. Logan Spear and Landon Espinola also recorded hits for the Indians.
Ripon will look to bounce back quickly against Ripon Christian, as they host the Knights on Friday at Mistlin Sports Park.
“We’ll look to our No. 1 on Friday, and hopefully we can get ahead in some counts that can help us go to some off-speed pitches with more effectiveness and less concern about them running on us,” Gilmer said.
Ripon Christian will counter with their own ace in Luisi, who came on to close out Wednesday’s win, pitching 1 2/3 innings of shutout baseball.
