GAMES
RANKINGS
Ridge Point's Hunter Nichols (left) and Strake Jesuit's Garrett Stratton (right) figure to play prominent roles in this week's Region III-6A final.
Dominant pitching highlights Strake Jesuit-Ridge Point regional final
The Crusaders are 29-10-2. Their big three on the bump are senior right-hander and Rice signee Garrett Stratton, senior right-hander Kade Baron and junior right-hander John Toney.
Stratton is 2-1 in the postseason with a 1.51 ERA and 26 strikeouts to 15 walks; over his last three starts, Stratton has struck out 22 to seven walks and allowed no earned runs.
Strake Jesuit senior Garrett Stratton.VYPE Media
Garcia-Rameau said Stratton is better this year after working on his body during the offseason. Stratton is better conditioned and stronger after adding 10 pounds of muscle. He has pitched complete games in two of four starts these playoffs and went 7 1/3 innings in an extra-innings affair in an area round start.
Baron is 2-0 in the postseason with two complete games, an 0.74 ERA and 16 strikeouts to five walks. Sixty-five percent of his 264 pitches have been strikes. Garcia-Rameau admires the former reliever’s poise and laid-back approach.
Toney has a 3.9 ERA, with 16 strikeouts to six walks, and has followed Stratton’s and Baron’s lead. In the Crusaders’ 2-1 Game 3 win over Katy last weekend that secured another regional final appearance, Toney surrendered one unearned run on five hits while striking out two and walking none in a complete-game effort.
Strake Jesuit starting pitching has allowed 20 earned runs over 66 innings and thrown strikes 62 percent of the time in the postseason.
“Last year, we had a little bit more depth,” Garcia-Rameau said. “But this year, the three guys we have starting have gone complete games, so we haven’t had to go too much into the bullpen. That’s always nice.”
Ridge Point coach Clint Welch said he’s been impressed with his pitchers’ consistency executing the game plan for each hitter over the last six weeks. Starters are throwing first-pitch strikes and exhibiting impressive command.
These playoffs, Panthers starters have allowed 18 earned runs over 66 2/3 innings and thrown strikes 60 percent of the time.
“Coaches can prepare all they want, but you’ve got to have pitchers come out and execute,” Welch said. “Our pitchers have done that with consistency and being able to throw multiple pitches for strikes.”
The 33-5 Panthers, too, have a wealth of quality, dependable arms.
Senior right-hander Hunter Nichols and junior right-hander Kellen Gradisar are both capable of pitching Game 1 of a series, with the other throwing Game 2. Freshman left-hander and University of Texas commit Jack McKernan has been a revelation as a dependable No. 3 starter.
Gradisar, a confident and unflappable competitor, has a 1.04 ERA this postseason with 13 strikeouts to three walks, throwing seven innings in three of four starts.
“We had a lot of confidence that he was going to have a great year,” Welch said. “Last year, he had an arm injury and didn’t get to pitch, but he is that guy who can throw three different pitches for strikes in any count. When you can do that, especially at this level, you’re probably going to have a lot of success.”
Nichols has adapted well to a starter’s role after coming out of the bullpen last year. He has a 2.32 ERA these playoffs, with eight earned runs allowed over 24 1/3 innings.
Ridge Point senior Hunter Nichols.VYPE Media
McKernan has a 2.78 postseason ERA and the most electric stuff of anyone. His fastball tops out at 95 miles per hour. He averages two strikeouts for every walk, and while he can get into trouble every now and then, he has the poise and talent to escape almost any jam.
“The most unusual trait he has, for his age, is a lack of fear,” Welch said. “He does not worry about pressure. He’s shown all year he doesn’t mind being in the moment.”
If either team must go to its bullpen, it is unlikely to suffer in performance.
Strake Jesuit has senior right-hander Jacob Broussard and junior left-hander Dominic Botard as primary relievers, and other stable situational arms in juniors Jake Haysley and Luke Eumont.
Ridge Point can turn to senior right-hander Devin McComas or junior left-hander JJ Kennett in relief. But like his counterpart, Welch has not had to use his bullpen much these playoffs because of great starting pitching.
“It’s almost standard that if you’re still playing at this time of year, you’re probably pretty good at both pitching and defense,” Welch said. “Inning by inning, game by game, we’re going to have to try to adjust after we see it if things aren’t going our way. We have to compete, stay patient and hopefully keep the game close and have things go our way the back-half of the game.”
A game plan Strake Jesuit is also likely to adhere to in a battle of two evenly matched clubs hungry to return to Round Rock.
Ridge Point is 31-4 and headed to the regional semifinals after sweeping No. 1 state-ranked Tompkins in their Class 6A regional quarterfinal series at Tompkins High.
Confident Ridge Point shocks No. 1 Tompkins, sweeps regional quarterfinal showdown
The Panthers proved as much Friday evening, finishing off the vaunted Falcons with a shocking sweep of their Class 6A regional quarterfinals. Almost exactly 24 hours after Ridge Point rallied from down 1-0 with no runners on base and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a cinematic 2-1 Game 1 win, it responded demonstratively in Game 2, jumping out to a seven-run lead before holding on for a 9-7 win at Tompkins High.
“We love this,” said Panthers senior Justin Vossos, who had two RBIs in the Game 2 win. “We saw the bracket come out and we wanted to play them. We want to play the best. We worked hard like we know how to do, and we believed. We believed we could beat them. We came out and played our baseball and obviously it showed.”
The Panthers (31-4) advance to play Pearland in next week’s regional semifinals. Ridge Point is eyeing its second state tournament appearance in three seasons, not including the 2020 campaign shortened by COVID-19.
‘They’ll have the momentum,” coach Clint Welch said of his boys. “They’re hungry now. That will take care of itself.”
Tompkins pitchers struggled with command. Of the 141 pitches thrown between seniors Solomon Rotberg and Michael De Battista, and junior Ty Dagley, only 79 were strikes (56 percent).
The Falcons walked seven Panthers, and it was lack of command that ended the evening abruptly for starter Rotberg, forcing Tompkins to go to its bullpen after 1 1/3 innings.
Ridge Point did not get much offensively going until the sixth inning, when three straight walks from De Battista to start the frame ultimately resulted in six runs, keyed by Vossos’ two-run RBI double, Travis Vlasek’s second RBI single of the game, and Carter Groen’s two-run double that plated the eighth and ninth runs that turned out to be decisive.
The Panthers scored nine runs off seven hits.
“With the wind blowing out, we knew to stay compact,” Vossos said. “Hit nice little line drives and they’ll fly. A few walks led us to good hits and good ABs, so that really helped us.”
The Panthers, meanwhile, benefited from an admirable outing from senior Hunter Nichols. The right-hander threw six solid innings, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out eight.
“Hunter did a great job and kept them from scoring early,” Welch said. “That’s a tough team with a tough lineup. For the wind blowing out like it is, for him to only give up a couple of runs in six innings … just a phenomenal outing from him.”
Nichols’ slider was devastating. He threw his changeup and fastball for strikes. He didn’t so much blow away Tompkins’ batch of sluggers as he did thwart them with off-speed precision.
“Those guys can hit,” Nichols said. “I knew I had to make pitches to get people out. I just tried to stay humble and stay focused. It was a big game. I was able to come out effectively enough to help get us a win.”
Ridge Point scored a run in each of the first three innings to go ahead 3-0 early. Tompkins got within 3-2 in the third inning and did not threaten again until the bottom of the seventh, down 9-2.
Against Ridge Point’s dynamic freshman left-handed closer Jack McKernan, a University of Texas commit, the Falcons quickly strung together five runs on four soft hits, walking twice and getting hit by pitches twice. It was the offensive prowess many had been expecting from Tompkins all series long.
But after a balk was called on Nichols, which Welch said he didn’t quite understand why, McKernan got Cash Russell to fly out to right fielder Owen Farris to hand Tompkins its third loss in 31 games.
In Game 1, it was Ridge Point’s bats that were clutch with two outs, especially Groen’s walk-off two-run single. In Game 2, it was the rookie McKernan fighting through tough calls on balls-strikes and a balk. It was McKernan’s strikeout on five pitches of Falcons power hitter and Texas A&M signee Jace LaViolette, a probable early pick in this summer’s Major League Baseball draft, that will leave an impression.
“We have a bunch of guys that compete,” Vossos said. “They come out here, work their (butt) off in practice. Everyone wants that big moment.”
Ridge Point baseball.VYPE Media
Welch said there are similarities between this year’s Panthers and those 2019 state finalists.
“One is that they all get along well, and you’ve got to have that,” Welch said. “You can’t have cliques within your team. We have guys that all contribute to the team in some way. They all get along. They’re all rooting for one another, rather than hoping a guy doesn’t get a hit so that they can get in. We don’t have guys that do that. We have guys that mesh well together.”
Sky-high confidence. A thickened bond. And self-assurance and trust on the field, at the plate and on the mound.
“We’re going to stick to what we’ve been doing and stay true to ourselves,” Nichols said. “Play baseball the way we know.”