Woodbridge knocks off Forest Park in Cardinal District baseball

By JUSTIN CREECH For the News & Messenger
Published: April 18, 2008

As Jake Myer came to the dugout after the sixth inning, Woodbridge baseball coach Jason Ritenour asked his senior starting pitcher if he wanted to go back out for the seventh. Myer very quickly responded, "Yes."

Myer had just given up a run in the top of the sixth that allowed Forest Park to pull within three runs after trailing by as many as seven in the second inning.

"He's a senior," said Ritenour. "I trust his judgement."

The decision proved to be the right one. After allowing a single to begin the inning, Myer retired three consecutive Bruins to clinch a 10-7 Woodbridge victory and first place in the Cardinal District.

"I got us that far. I wanted to finish the job," said Myer, who also went 1 for 2 with an RBI. "I just wanted to do what I could to help us win."

As they have all season, the Vikings (9-2, 3-0) came out of the gate smoking as they compiled six hits and eight runs in the game's first two innings to build an 8-1 lead.

Singles from Kevin Tatum, Myer, and Joey Spadell led to three first-inning runs while Mike Lott, Tatum and Christian Worrell registered hits in the second inning that led to five Woodbridge runs.

Tatum hit a one-hopper to right field with the bases loaded in the second that scored Lott and catcher Tyler Bonta.

"We are loose before games," said Myer of his teams' ability to score runs early. "We have great team chemistry."

Forest Park (8-4, 2-1) didn't help its cause as it committed several errors early that led to several Woodbridge runs. Bruins coach John Colantuoni attributed his team's fielding problems to not being ready to play.

"It's tough to win games when you can't catch the baseball," said Colantuoni. "We do a lot of situations and take ground balls each day in practice, but we just weren't ready to play."

Colantuoni's club came alive in the top of the third. With runners on first and second with two outs, Sean Gilliam smashed a three-run home run to right field to cut Woodbridge's lead to 8-4.

Forest Park again did damage with two outs in the top of the fifth. Johnathan Wright hit a two-run home run to straight away center field to pull the Bruins to within 9-6. In total, Forest Park scored six of their seven runs with two outs.

"When they started scoring, [our] coaches agreed we were going to have to match then run for run," said Ritenour. "We knew we were going to have to score to win the game."