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ROSS — Ross High School baseball coach Jason Rettinger woke up Friday morning, May 16, to find his field submerged in water. And he went to bed with his team buried in mistakes.

Three miscues at third base cost the Rams a pair of runs and granted Bellbrook one, and those plays turned out to be the difference as the eighth-seeded Eagles upset No. 1 Ross 6-3 in a Division II sectional tournament game at RHS.

With the win, Bellbrook (12-12) moves into the sectional championship Monday against the winner of today's Monroe-Oakwood contest.

The Rams end their season 15-11 after losing nine of their final 13 games following an 11-2 start.

"We haven't swung the bat in a couple of weeks," Rettinger said. "It's something we hoped we would break out of, but it just didn't happen."

Bellbrook scored one run in the first and two in the second to take a 3-1 lead, but Ross appeared poised to tie the game with runners on second and third with one out.

Rettinger called for a suicide squeeze, but the runner on third broke too early, enabling Eagles pitcher Brian Seger to throw a pitch that couldn't be bunted for an easy out at the plate.

"We just worked on that yesterday, so it's a little frustrating," Rettinger said.

The next batter struck out, and Bellbrook got out of the inning.

In the fourth, Ross again had runners on second and third with one out, but the runner on third got too far off on a comebacker to the mound, resulting in another easy out.

"Another mental mistake," Rettinger said.

While seemingly nothing was working for the Rams, the exact opposite was true for the Eagles. When Matt Collins got caught too far off third base, he broke for home and ended up scoring when Ross made a wild throw to the plate.

And when Bellbrook coach Tony Chitwood pulled Seger in favor of Mike Morgan after just 12/3 innings, it forced him to put JV call-up Zach Guess at second base. All Guess did was go 2-for-2 with a run scored and make a diving stab of a line drive for the first out in the bottom of the seventh.

"What a great performance," Chitwood said. "Just absolutely great."

Kyle Furderer added a solo home run to help make a winner of Morgan (3-1), while staff ace Mark Stratis pitched the final three innings to earn his first save of the year while running his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 17.

Rettinger also used his ace, Derek Bischoff, to finish the game after electing to start Josh Casteel (2-2).

"Bischoff has had a little bit of tightness, and we had him on a short, 60-pitch count," Rettinger said. "There was no way he was going a full game with 90 to 100 pitches, so it was either start him or finish with him."

C

ontact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.

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