Ruffin's RBI double lifts Eagles to 10-inning win

In a game featuring multiple heroes on both teams at different junctures of the ball game, it was Central Catholic’s Mr. Clutch who proved to be the biggest of them all.
T.J. Ruffin’s RBI-double in the top of the 10th inning plated the game-winning run and reliever Samuel Guarisco ended the game in the bottom of the inning for a 2-1 Central Catholic win against Ascension Catholic.
“I hadn’t messed with him too much yet, but I secretly hear him sometimes call himself Mr. Clutch, so his head’s probably about as big as that dugout now, but no, it was a huge hit,” Central Catholic coach Tyler Jensen said. “We had an opportunity an inning before. We had opportunities throughout, we just couldn’t get that big hit. I really would have liked us to get another hit there to make me feel a little bit better, but of course they had to get a hit and get a runner on (in the bottom of the 10th) and not make things easy for us.”
Ruffin said it felt good to live up to his nickname.
“I just wanted another chance after my last at bats going like 0-for-whatever and not getting a run in,” he said.
Ruffin led the Eagles, who were limited to just five hits, with a 1-for-4 performance with a double and an RBI.
With the win, the No. 6 Eagles advance to their fourth straight semifinal. They will meet No. 7 St. Edmund at 5 p.m. Friday at McMurry Park.
Jensen said this quarterfinal game was the most difficult of the four he has coached the Eagles in.
“No quarterfinal game’s easy,” he said. “I always say the quarterfinal game’s the most difficult.”
Much of Monday’s game proved to be a pitchers’ duel between sophomores, Central Catholic’s Greg Leger Jr. and Ascension Catholic’s Landon Clifton.
The duo each threw 120 pitches and combined to surrender just five hits.
Both received a no-decision as the game became a battle of relievers, Central Catholic’s Samuel Guarisco and Ascension Catholic’s Falcon Mire.
Guarisco earned the win as he pitched two innings and surrendered a hit.
Mire suffered the loss. In three innings, he surrendered one earned run on two hits with two walks, two hit batters and fanned four.
While the teams combined for just eight hits in the ball game, the majority of their baserunners came via walks as the teams combined for 13.
But both teams’ defenses and pitchers also came up big when they needed to.
Central Catholic struck first in the top of the first inning when, after Clifton walked Stefano Guarisco and Samuel Guarisco to lead off the game, they advanced a base on Mitchell Lemoine’s ground out to third base before Stefano Guarisco scored on Thomas Garber’s ground out to third.
The Eagles got the first big defensive play in the bottom of the first inning.
After Leger walked the first three batters of the game — Garrett Hales, Ross Ponville and Nick Bellina — to load the bases, he came back with a strikeout of James Martin before Falcon Mire grounded out to Samuel Guarisco, who got the ball to second baseman Tony Pennison to initiate a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning unscathed.
Leger said he was nervous early on.
“This is my first year actually pitching,” he said. “I pitched in regular season … and it was just a normal game, but having everybody sit there behind me like behind the backstop, it was just nerve-racking. Once I figured I got out of that first inning, I felt like I started to find my zone.”
From there, a pitching duel ensued as the teams had just one run on five hits during the next eight innings.
“For high school baseball, it doesn’t get any better — 2-1, 10 innings,” Ascension Catholic coach Todd Landry said. “Both pitchers just threw phenomenal games. It’s a shame that anybody had to lose it, but got to give them credit. They got the hit at the time, and they deserve it. They’re a great team.”
Ascension Catholic tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Martin drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second base on a passed ball, and following back-to-back strikeouts, scored on Charlie Genaloni’s single to left field.
The Eagles got out of another jam in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Martin reached on a throwing error and advanced to second on the play when the ball went to the wall in foul territory.
He then advanced to third base on Mire’s groundout to second base, and during the next at bat by Collin Landry, Martin took off to try and steal home on the pitch.
However, Leger got the ball to catcher Matthew Barbier, who applied the tag for the third out and the Eagles escaped any damage.
“We ended up with two hits in the game, and their guy, we (weren’t) getting very good looks at him,” Landry said. “He was pretty much dominating, so I’ve kind of done that over the course of the playoffs is kind of try to force the issue and make them make a play, and they did. It was close, but just one of those things. It’s not like we had 10 hits and ran ourselves out an inning. We had to take the chance, while we had it.”
While the Eagles advanced runners to second and third base in the eighth and ninth innings, Mire, who came on in relief to begin the eighth, got out of both innings with a strikeout.
Leger escaped a two-out rally by the Bulldogs in the eighth inning with a fly out.
Leger pitched eight innings and surrendered one earned run on two hits with six walks and seven strikeouts.
Samuel Guarisco, who started the ninth on the mound for the Eagles, faced just one batter over the minimum in his relief appearance.
In addition to his relief on the mound, Guarisco made several stellar plays in the field at shortstop.
“I was just pumped up,” he said. “I just try to do everything I can, and give my body up for the team and try to win a state championship.”
Clifton pitched seven innings and surrendered one earned run on three hits with five walks and four strikeouts.
Besides Ruffin, other top offensive contributors for the Eagles included Samuel Guarisco, 1-for-2; Leger, 1-for-3; Stefano Guarisco, 1-for-4 and a run; Charlie Barron, 1-for-4; and Thomas Garber, an RBI.
Genaloni led Ascension Catholic with a 1-for-4 performance with an RBI, while Hales also finished 1-for-4 and Ross Ponville, 1-for-3.