Richland capitalizes on Central Cambria errors in District 6-3A quarterfinal
WINDBER, Pa. – The Richland Rams played clean baseball to defeat the Central Cambria Red Devils and advance to the District 6 Class 3A semifinals with a 10-4 win at Windber Sports Complex. Central Cambria struggled to make key defensive plays, resulting in a handful of runs for Richland.
The Red Devils committed eight errors, and the Rams capitalized on those mistakes. "That's what we talked about, not having selfish plate appearances when we had runners in scoring position," Richland coach Josh Day said. "Putting the ball in play and trying to make them do something with it allowed us to generate runs.
They may have had a few mistakes, but I think it's because we kept putting pressure on them by putting the ball in play. " Richland was able to apply that pressure early by getting a runner on by an error. Ryan Ozog followed by smacking a single, moving Caden Robertson to third base.
Ozog attempted to steal second and got caught in between first and second, but the throw went into center field, allowing Robertson to score. The Red Devils got out of the inning with just one run allowed, but ran into more trouble in the second when Jake Regan laced a run-scoring double to left. A wild pitch moved Regan up to third, and Dom Shank brought him in with a groundout.
To start the third, Central Cambria got its first two runners on base, knocking Ozog out of the game early. Maddox Vojtko came in and got three flyouts to end it, keeping the momentum with the Rams. Richland took that boost to the fourth inning, where it broke the game open.