No. 4 Southern beats No. 5 Mtn. Ridge, 5-4, on Nesselrodt's walk-off in extras

OAKLAND — Facing a 4-0 deficit in the second inning with its season on the line, Southern stuck with it.

The Rams’ struggling offense had combined for four runs in three games coming in, but it answered Mountain Ridge’s early production with three scores of its own and manufactured a tally in the sixth to force extra innings.

JD Nesselrodt’s number was called in a pinch-hit opportunity with the winning run 180 feet away, and he drove a two-strike pitch into the right-center gap for a walk-off double to send No. 4 seed Southern to a 5-4 eight-inning win over No. 5 seed Mountain Ridge in the Class 1A West Region I quarterfinals.

“Told our kids Monday after the Frankfort game, Tuesday after practice, Wednesday after practice, ‘The nice part about the playoffs, everybody is 0-0,’” Southern skipper Hayden McLaughlin said. “It’s win or go home. We made it work today.”

Southern (9-10) advances to the region semifinals at top-seeded Northern (13-6) on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Mountain Ridge received a quality start from Delaware commit John Delaney and out-hit the Rams, 9-4, but the Miners cooled off late and made four costly errors to finish the season 5-15.

“Started off hot and then we had some mental breaks,” Mountain Ridge manager Josh Glass said. “Just little things, mental lapses that continue to haunt us all year. A young team, that’s expected, but it can’t be the excuse. We’ve got to work harder in the off-season and next year to get past that.”

The most consequential Miner miscue came with the team leading Southern, 4-3, with two Rams on and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Cade Leader hit a ground ball up the middle, and he beat out the throw to first to prevent a double play.

The runner who started the play on second, Sam Richards, was sent home by his third-base coach McLaughlin, and the throw from first was wide to allow the tying run to score.

Richards, who scored twice as a courtesy runner, was also the pinch runner on Nesselrodt’s walk-off in the eighth — a play he set up by swiping second.

Nesselrodt was supposed to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but he did one better after being unable to get it down.

“JD Nesselrodt is the epitome of what it means to be a good person and teammate,” McLaughlin said. “He’s usually the first one here, last one to leave.

“He had started pretty much every game for us this year up until the last two. And he had two choices there. Be mad about it and say I don’t care or be ready for his moment. He was today. He came up big for us.”

Both starting pitchers pitched into the seventh inning.

Southern right-hander Hayden Williams allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks in 6 1/3 frames of work.

Williams put up four scoreless after Mountain Ridge’s four-spot in the second.

Cole Parks was the winning arm in relief with 1 2/3 shutout frames of one-hit ball.