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Ravenswood drops regional championship contest

BUFFALO — Buffalo was able to force a third game in the Class A Region IV championship series by rallying from an early deficit to beat Ravenswood 7-4 on Friday.

The two teams will meet one last time in Ravenswood at 2 p.m. Saturday to decide who will represent the region at the state tournament.

“This was a big one for us that we needed, but we know we still have a little more left to do,” Buffalo coach Jimmy Tribble said. “They are the largest single-A team in the state, they just came down from double-A and we’re the little guys. We’re going to keep scrapping with them, we’re going to keep clawing.

“It’s going to take a lot of effort for us to come in and win in Ravenswood, and this is a group that wants to take on that challenge.”

After falling into a 3-0 hole in the first two innings, the Bison settled in and got back on their feet.

The offensive rally began in the fourth inning as Buffalo was able to string together a few timely hits to take advantage of three costly Ravenswood errors and a wild pitch to turn that deficit into a six-run fourth inning to put the Bison in front and give Buffalo the momentum in front of the home crowd.

That rally, Tribble said, looked like a team that came into the game knowing it could be its last of the season.

“I’m proud of these guys because they didn’t just roll over and give it to them when they could have,” Tribble said. “We fought, we battled. We made some bad plays early, but we refused to give up.”

While the offense was finally getting into a groove, so was starting pitcher Ian O’Donnell. After allowing three runs on four hits in the first two innings, the senior right-hander settled in, retiring nine of 10 batters he faced from the fourth through the sixth inning.

He finished the game with 6 2/3 innings pitched, allowing four runs on nine hits while striking out three before making way for Brandon Dillman to come in and get the final out with the Red Devils threatening.

“If Ian can get through the first inning, he starts to calm down and picks up velocity as he gets into the game and throws more pitches,” Tribble said. “Tonight he pitched behind, tonight he walked a few guys early, but he buckled down and turned it around and started to pitch a lot better as the game went on.”

O’Donnell and Issac Casto both had RBI singles in that pivotal fourth inning to help lead the way for Buffalo. Dillman and O’Donnell both had two hits for the Bison, with Dillman hitting an RBI double in the first inning.

Ravenswood got a couple of early RBI groundouts from Chase Swain and Nathan Curtis in the first innings before Swain hit an RBI single the following inning that helped the Red Devils out to their early lead. Lakin Tucker led Ravenswood with three hits and had an RBI while Andrew Anglin finished the game with two hits.

Nic Taylor struck out five in 3 1/3 innings as he allowed four runs on three hits.

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