Rams adjust, throw Valley View a curve
STATE COLLEGE – With Ringgold baseball one win away from a Class 4A state title, the Rams put their season into the hands of two pitchers who threw more curveballs than fastballs and didn’t break 80 mph with those fastballs.
While Valley View’s starting pitcher was throwing 88-90 mph, it was Ringgold’s soft tossers who led the Rams to a 6-4 victory and the program’s first state championship.
It started with Josh Peters and ended with Jake Mullen.
Peters is the Rams’ main reliever, as the righty started only one game during the regular season. The junior was the winning pitcher, throwing 5 ? innings. He allowed nine hits and four earned runs while walking three and striking out four.
The state final win was the second win for Peters in the PIAA playoffs as he threw five shutout innings in a mercy-rule win over Hopewell in the quarterfinals. Peters moved into a starting role in the playoffs once Chase Angotti, the Rams’ No. 2 starter, was having shoulder discomfort.
“He didn’t get as many starts throughout the season, but that was because we had Ryan Varley and Chase Angotti,” said Ringgold head coach Don Roberts. “(Peters) started a lot for us last year. He’s an experienced pitcher. We were confident in him, especially after that Hopewell game. I think that was a big confidence builder for him.”
Despite the confidence going into the game from Roberts, Peters struggled. He allowed three runs on a two-out, bases-clearing triple in the first and gave up another run in the second.
“I was definitely a little nervous,” Peters said.
What turned it around for Peters was an excellent 6-4-3 double play to escape a bases-loaded jam in the second. Shortstop Koby Bubash planted hard on his right foot, pivoted to his left and delivered a perfect feed to second baseman Jake Rongaus, who fired a strike to first for the two-for-one groundout.
“I felt like that was a big momentum shifter,” Roberts said. “Koby Bubash is a phenomenal shortstop. I’d have to circle that as one of the plays of the game. Josh really settled down after that second inning, and he pitched phenomenally after that.”
“It was huge,” Peters said. “We have one of the best defenses. They’re great. … We got hyped after that.”
After the second inning, Peters and catcher Bobby Boyer started pitching backwards to the fastball-hungry Cougars. Peters didn’t allow a run over his next 3 ? innings. He stranded 10 runners in his start.
“I threw a lot of curveballs,” Peters said. “Probably two out of three pitches were curveballs. It’s just whatever works. The slider wasn’t on, so I just stayed with the curve and let it fly.”
“(The curveballs) are nothing we haven’t seen all year,” said Valley View head coach Jason Munley. “We hit some balls hard, but they made some good plays.”
Relieving Peters in the sixth inning was Jake Mullen.
When the fans got an extended look at Mullen in the seventh, they might have thought the radar gun in right field was broken, but it wasn’t.
67 mph is what it read every pitch.
That’s not the speed of his fastball, because he didn’t throw any in the seventh inning.
All curveballs.
Mullen, a junior soft tosser who didn’t pitch in a game until May, logged only seven innings all season and didn’t throw a pitch in the playoffs, recorded the last four outs for the save.
“He hasn’t pitched a whole lot this year, but he was one of the best curveballs on the team,” Roberts said. “Jake Mullen is probably our softest thrower on the team, but we said he was going to be the guy-to guy because we liked the matchup.”
Mullen allowed two baserunners in the seventh, but retired the last batter on a fly ball to right field to give the Rams their first PIAA crown.
“We knew that was the right call to make,” Roberts said.