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Ravenswood heads to first state tournament in 18 years

Ravenswood’s baseball team poses for a team picture while celebrating winning the Class A, Region IV title Saturday with a 5-1 victory over Buffalo. Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn.

RAVENSWOOD — It may have taken five days with a suspended game and a rainout, but finally Saturday afternoon, Ravenswood got splendid pitching, solid defense and timely hitting to best an underdog Buffalo squad 5-1 and secure its first trip to the state baseball tournament since 1999.

It all came down to one day, one game for Wes Swain’s host Red Devils against the Bison in the deciding game 3 of Class A, Region IV play, with the best-of-3 series knotted at 1-all.

But after a disappointing 7-4 loss at Buffalo Friday night, back home Saturday everything pretty much seemed to go Ravenswood’s way en route to ending a long 18-year drought to get back to Charleston.

That, though, happened on the arm of senior hurler Nathan Curtis, who pitched a masterful two-hitter with 16 strikeouts and just two walks; the Red Devils bats that pounded out 10 hits, highlighted by a monster homer by Chase Swain and Lakin Tucker going 3-for-4; and a sharp defensive effort that turned both a key double play and then a pickoff at second base with the outcome still in doubt in the fifth and six innings respectively.

While Curtis was mowing down the opposition through the first three innings to the tune of eight whiffs, his teammates put three runs up on the scoreboard to grab an early lead.

Ravenswood’s baseball team poses for a team picture while celebrating winning the Class A, Region IV title Saturday with a 5-1 victory over Buffalo. Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn.

With one out in the second, Tucker beat out an infield single on a dribbler toward third base and then was safe at second base when a fielder’s choice try there was dropped for an error. A two-out single by Ciah Kennedy past the third baseman into left field loaded the bases, followed by back-to-back RBI singles lined to right by Stephen Dawson and Nic Taylor for a 2-0 advantage.

In the Ravenswood third, two Buffalo errors sandwiched around a walk and infield single by Brennan Barr plated run No. 3 for the Red Devils.

The next inning saw Brandon Dillman get to Curtis for the Bison’s first hit of the game, and a big one at that, with a solo blast over the left-field fence to narrow the gap to 3-1.

Then came the two defensive gems to stymie Buffalo from getting any closer. In the fifth with one out and one on for the Bison and the tying run at the plate, Ravenswood turned a slick 6-4-3 twin killing to thwart the threat.

And in the top of the sixth, this time with two on and two out, Curtis picked off the runner on second base to stifle Buffalo again.

The Red Devil sixth saw Chase Swain, on the pitch after he fouled a ball off his foot, hammer a drive long and gone, deep over the 20-foot-high fence in right field for a 4-1 lead that soon became 5-1 on Curtis’ double and Tucker’s RBI single dropped into center field.

And to finish off the win, Curtis — still firing strikes in the seventh — ended the game by chalking up three straight K’s.

“It was just pure adrenaline at the end; I don’t know how else to explain it,” said Curtis. “Every bit of my heart was pumping on those last three pitches. It was the most exciting game I ever played. I’m just glad I could come out and do my job today.”

For Chase Swain, it was his first bomb over the tall right-field fence this season, and his sixth homer overall. “After Friday night, it felt really good to win today,” he said. “Our (Ravenswood’s) last time at state, they won the championship.”

Wes Swain thought the pickoff and double play were both “big for us, defensively and mentally. Although we worked on the pickoff, we had nothing on. I didn’t know they were going to do it; that was between the shortstop and the pitcher, and it worked out. That was a killer for them definitely,” as Buffalo finished the season 15-16.

Wes Swain added that “this year’s team has a resiliency that we haven’t seen here for a while. They never quit and it seems like in the big games, they stay really focused, and today they put it all together — thank goodness.”

Now 22-9, top-seeded Ravenswood will face No. 4 seed Tygarts Valley in a Class A state semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston. A win moves the Red Devils into Saturday’s 1 p.m. state championship contest versus either Wheeling Central or Charleston Catholic.

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