Red Devils Defeat North Springs in Crucial Region 5-AAA Clash

A close examination of the box score from the Druid Hills Red Devils 11-10 road victory over the North Springs Spartans reveals a single statistic that tells the story behind Friday night’s region 5-AAA showdown: errors.

The Spartans made eight of them in their home loss, paving the way for a Red Devils come from behind victory.

“We just competed our butts off all night,” said Druid Hills head coach Matt Gershon. “We were missing a couple of guys, a couple of our starters and we had guys step up so it’s a great win for us.”

Friday’s game was a back and forth affair but hardly a pitcher’s duel; both teams registered 15 hits on the evening, and the game hung in the balance until the final out of the seventh inning.

The Red Devils’ built an early lead with some clutch two-out hitting in the top of the third from catcher Brady Ksionzyk, who smacked an RBI double to left center to give the visitors a 4-3 advantage before a balk by North Springs pitcher Hunter Bryan made the score 5-3.

However, Bryan escaped the inning without allowing further damage and the Spartans battled back in the bottom of the third, tallying five runs behind a double by Bryan that scored two and a two-out line drive from Ryan Morrow that brought home two more North Springs runs.

The teams traded body blows in the fourth and fifth innings and with his squad leading 10-8, Spartan pitcher Spencer Middleton took the mound in the top of the sixth for the home team.

Middleton ran into trouble early however, as Druid Hills pitcher Kyle Ludewick crushed a lead-off double to the left field corner off of his counterpart.

Next up for the Red Devils was Ksionzyk, who tapped a soft grounder down the first baseline that was scooped up by Middleton. However, the Spartan pitcher’s throw to first sailed wide of his first baseman and into the backstop behind first base, allowing a Red Devil run to score and Ksionzyk to reach first safely.

Aided by two more North Springs errors and a double to left field by senior Odir Martinez, the Red Devils recaptured an 11-10 lead entering the bottom of the sixth.

The Red Devils replaced Ludewick with senior James Ridgway to start the sixth, but the Druid Hills hurler got into trouble early and the Spartans appeared poised to reclaim the lead.

Ridgway conceded a leadoff single to the Spartans’ Bryan before walking the next two batters to load the bases with no outs.

The Druid Hills senior fought back however, forcing the next North Springs batter to ground back to the pitcher’s mound. Ridgway scooped up the grounder and fired to Ksionzyk at home plate who applied the tag to the Spartan base runner to prevent the run from scoring.

Ridgway went back to work and got the Spartans’ Court Granish to pop-up before Morrow looked at a called third strike to end the inning and to allow Druid Hills to escape to the seventh inning unscathed.

“I just stayed persistent and didn’t worry about the runners and kept throwing strikes,” said Ridgway. “They were having trouble with the fastball so I just kept pounding the zone.”

After a scoreless top of the inning from the Red Devils, Ridgway returned to the mound to preserve the Druid Hills victory.

North Springs slugger Ramon Virbon nearly tied the game with his one out blast that bounced off of the bottom of the left field wall for a double. However, Ridgway got the Spartans’ Sammie Evans to groundout to short and then with Virbon at third ready to race home with two outs, Bryan popped up to Druid Hills shortstop Deric Boone to give the Red Devils the narrow victory.

After the game, Spartans’ head coach Stephen Bengston spoke about the numerous defensive mistakes made by his squad in Friday’s loss.

“We made too many errors... when you give teams four or five outs an inning, you’re going to get beat,” said Bengston. “But you know, the sun’s going to come up tomorrow and it’s a long season. We’ve still got a lot of baseball to play and we’ve got to get back to work on the defense.”