Published: April 15, 2008 09:50 am         

Rolling Raiders rip Redskins

The Northridge Raiders broke open a close high school baseball game Monday and finished it in the same inning.

The Raiders, trailing the Goshen Redskins 3-0 early, roared back for a 14-4 Northern Lakes Conference victory at NHS in Middlebury. A nine-run bottom of the fifth inning ended the game by the 10-run rule.

Junior Luke Hofsommer led the Northridge hit parade with four singles while senior Lincoln Rassi and sophomore Gatlin Rassi both had three hits, juniors Cody Troyer and Dustin Petersen both two.

Lincoln Rassi was the winning pitcher. He allowed three hits, striking out nine and walking three. The first eight outs he recorded were on strikes.

Goshen hits were singles by seniors John Sevison, Jake Drudge and Josh Ortiz.

The Redskins couldn’t deliver that extra clutch hit offensively and, on the other side, had trouble coming up with the third out in a couple innings.

Drudge walked and Ortiz singled to start Goshen’s half of the second inning. Sevison bunted for a sacrifice and reached base with Drudge scoring on a Raider error.

Junior Spencer Oversen received credit for an RBI when Ortiz scored on his grounder and a second Northridge error sent Sevison to third from where he scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 GHS lead.

Redskin junior Ethan Hussey reached on a dropped pop fly in the fourth, went to second when junior Cord Schmucker was hit by a pitch and scored as junior Brett Hunter bunted for a sacrifice and there was another Raider miscue.

But Goshen left the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings as Lincoln Rassi was able to escape the jams with the help of sparkling plays by junior second baseman Alex Summy.

Northridge tallied four in the third with Lincoln Rassi, Gatlin Rassi and Petersen delivering consecutive two-out RBI singles. Another run scored on an error and Hofsommer had an RBI single in the fourth.

Cody Troyer, Lincoln Rassi and Petersen each had two-RBI hits as Northridge ended it in the fifth.

Lincoln Rassi said, “We got off to a slow start, then finally started to get things going with some aggressive baserunning. We seniors wanted to get off to a good start in the NLC.”

First-year Raider head coach Andrew Brabender said, “I liked the way our kids responded after getting down 3-0. It was the first time we have been behind this season and we just tried to stay on an even keel.

“We have some good hitters on this team and they came through in the clutch with two outs.”

Goshen head coach Hal Farmwald said, “We left six runners on base in those two innings and had way too many strikeouts again.

“When things start going badly, the floodgates open. We continue to make mistakes, rather than picking each other up.

“Brett Hunter deserved a better fate. He didn’t pitch that poorly for us. We made too many mistakes behind him and couldn’t add to that 3-0 lead we had early.”

Northridge, 7-0, visits NorthWood on Wednesday and Goshen, 1-3, hosts Warsaw.

Junior Varsity

Northridge won the JV game, 3-2, at Middlebury Little League. Dominic DeVito and Mike Stalter had RBI singles for the Raiders and Dale Schrock was the winning pitcher with five strikeouts.

Evan Weeden struck out six and walked one as Goshen pitcher. Carl Kay had three hits and Troy Pickard two.