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Erik Ruff does it all as Pirates win
The right-hander tossed a 4-hit
shutout and blasted two homers in the 5-0 victory.
SCHERERSVILLE
-- ICC Pirates' skipper Brian Ruff is looking
for a few good men.
"I have told these guys from day one
that I will go to battle with the eight or nine guys that show up to play," Ruff
said. "I want eight or nine guys that want to play ball every day and I will
take those guys into battle no matter who we are playing. Give me guys that want
to play."
Manager Ruff found exactly nine guys on
Friday who wanted to play (with himself being the ninth) and his son Erik was a
one-man wrecking crew, pitching a complete-game, four-hit shutout, slamming a
pair of home runs and a double while adding three RBI to lead the Pirates to a
surprisingly easy 5-0 win over the Fleetwings.
It was Erik's first pitching start in
the league since tearing his labrum in 2004.
But after shutting down one of the
league's most potent offenses, it may not be his last start in 2007. Although
Erik did say afterwards, "We'll see how long it takes me to recover from going
the distance in this one".
"We had to do something if we are going
to make the playoffs," added Erik. "And why not show that we can be a playoff
team by beating these guys again? Hopefully, this will get us rolling."
The win lifts the Pirates into a virtual
three-way tie for the sixth and final playoff spot with Jordan Creek and
Cetronia (The Longhorns were 13-3 winners over Quakertown Friday night) and all
three teams play the other two teams one time during the final week of the
season, promising an intriguing finish to the Trico 2007 campaign.
The only catch is that Jordan Creek and
ICC are 9-16-1, while Cetronia is 9-16, so it remains to be seen whether the
Longhorns have an edge with their "game in hand" since they do not have a tie on
their ledger this summer.
But none of that seems to matter to
Brian Ruff, whose team had six games left on their schedule counting Friday's
game with Woodlawn.
"Going into this stretch run, this is
game number one for us," Brian said. "I told the guys before the game that we
are looking at a brand new season from this point on and whatever happened in
the past stays in the past."
But the past has to be mentioned briefly
to put into perspective the tremendous job Coach Ruff has done just to get the
Pirates into the postseason in 2006 and have them once again competing for
another playoff spot in 2007.
Brian Ruff took over the ICC Pirates'
franchise in 2006, and was greeted with the "wonderful" news that their top two
pitchers from the 2005 season would not be back. Yet, the Pirates overcame that
loss and made the playoffs with the #6 seed in 2006. Then in 2007, the Pirates
lost their top two pitchers for a second straight season.
So to do the math, Ruff lost 94 1/3
innings from the two best pitchers in 2005, and then another 101 2/3 innings
from his two best pitchers in 2006.
Throw in the fact that his ace for the
2007 season has been throwing primarily for Martins Creek in the Blue Mountain
League for the last month.
And yet Ruff still has the
Pirates competing for a playoff spot, which is simply an incredible feat.
Before Erik Ruff even took the mound on
Friday night, he gave himself a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a long
home run to left. Two pitches before that big fly, he hit one out foul, but that
one only counted as a long strike in the scorebook.
That would be the only run the Pirates
would need, but Ruff's teammates decided to help him out a bit in the top half
of the second inning.
Josh Tuichty singled to left to start
the frame and Tony Bennicas sacrificed him to second. Pete Lezinsky blooped a
single to right-center to put runners on the corners before Ryan Dwyer beat out
an infield single to make it 2-0 Pirates. Brian Ruff sacrificed both runners up
90 feet before Cody Ruff got an infield single himself to make it 3-0 ICC.
Brother Erik laced a RBI double down the left-field line to make it 4-0 Pirates.
That would be all the scoring in this
game until the top of the seventh when Erik Ruff blasted his second homer of the
game to make it 5-0.
And the game would end that way as the
Fleetwings' offense never got on track, which was a bit understandable after a
deflating loss to Coplay the night before, ending a 13-game winning streak. But
the Fleetwings have bounced back from tough losses well in the past, so the
credit has to go to Erik Ruff, who simply threw a terrific game.
"We came out a bit disappointed from the
night before and got down early and just never got anything going," said
Woodlawn player/manager Jeremy Arner. "We had a bit of a long layoff coming into
these last two games and our bats just cooled off".
Erik Ruff finished 3-for-4 with two homers, a double and three RBI, while Cody
Ruff was 2-for-4 and Mark Sternat was 2-for-3 for ICC. Scott Matejicka was
2-for-3 for the Fleetwings.
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