C South baseball: Ramblers nip Saints in 10 innings, 2-1

Winthrop’s Antonio Meucci holds up at third base during the Ramblers’ Class C South quarterfinal at Winthrop High School on Thursday.

WINTHROP — St. Dom’s and Winthrop spent the bulk of Thursday’s Class C South quarterfinal waiting out the other side’s dominant starting pitcher.

By the 10th inning, Jackson Ladd wasn’t waiting anymore.

With runners at second and third, Ladd drove Justin Keaney’s first pitch to him into right field to give the second-seeded Ramblers a 2-1 win over the seventh-seeded Saints.

The Ramblers (11-6) will host No. 6 Monmouth in the semifinals on Saturday. The Saints end their season at 9-8.

An errant throw by the shortstop on a Maguire Anuszewski grounder up the middle put Ramblers at second and third with two out against Keaney, who was in his second inning in relief of starter Riley Volpe.

Ladd, who was 0-for-4 to that point, jumped on a first-pitch fastball and lashed it past a diving second baseman, scoring Carson Camick from third.

“I knew I wanted to take a nice, clean stroke to try to put the ball up the middle and just let things fall where they would,” Ladd said. “It worked out. I honestly thought I ws going to hit it right at second base.”

“He hadn’t had a day at the plate. He had a couple of nice hits, just right at people,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said of Ladd. “But he kept his confidence and did what he was supposed to do, drove the ball.”

St. Dom’s rallied to tie it in the seventh on Volpe’s one-out sacrifice fly to left off his counterpart, Jacob Hickey. Hickey stranded the go-ahead run at third with a strikeout.

Both Hickey and Volpe were sterling on the mound being lifted due to the 110-pitch restriction. They combined for 16 1/3 innings and didn’t walk a batter.

Hickey carried a perfect game into the fifth and a no-hitter into the sixth. Before being lifted for the 110-pitch limit, he went nine innings, allowed four hits, one earned run while striking out 10.

Volpe allowed just two hits, none after the second inning, and hit two batters while striking out 11 in 7 1/3 innings. His run was unearned.

“He was mixing things up really well. He hit his locations very well,” Ladd said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your hat to him.”

Winthrop’s first run came in the second, when leadoff hitter Matt Ingram reached on an error by the shortstop. Ingram went to second on a wild pitch and stole third, and was still there with two out after a strikeout and ground out back to the mound. Carson Camick went to the opposite field with a single to right to drive in Ingram.

That looked like enough support for Hickey, who cruised through the first four innings without a base runner. Keaney reached to lead off the fifth on a grounder to third that took a big hop over the third baseman but the Saints couldn’t take advantage. They also couldn’t capitalize with a runner at third and two out in the sixth as Hickey fanned Mac Pelletier with an inside fastball.

“I can’t ask for anything more out of our pitchers,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “Basically it came down to, it took us a while but we had Hickey on the ropes in the sixth, seventh inning and just couldn’t get that big (hit).”

“Jake had a game-and-a-half,” Fortin said. “I don’t know how many guys he struck out with somebody at third base to end the inning. (Volpe) pitched phenomenal. As soon as they brought the second guy in, I knew we’d catch him because he was throwing straight. We can catch speed.”

Keaney allowed a one-out single to Ingram in the ninth but picked him off to render that moot. Fay relieved Hickey to start the 10th and set the Saints down in order.