Ridgeview wasn't supposed to win with a kid barely out of the junior varsity on the mound. Middleburg wasn't supposed to defeat the No. 3 team in the state, and certainly not by roughing up its ace pitcher for eight runs.
But the Panthers and Broncos did all those things Wednesday, and more, as they ignored their tournament seedings and upended the district's No. 1 and 2 seeds in back-to-back games to set up an All-Clay County District 3-4A baseball championship game. More importantly, both teams have qualified for the regional playoffs for the first time in six years. They will play each other for the district championship and the right to host that first-round regional game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bronco Field.
Small sophomore pitcher Ryan Buddenhaggen made a big showing for Ridgeview.
Ridgeview, battling pitcher injuries, kicked off this surreal day of sudden-death baseball by putting a small, inexperienced sophomore left-hander on the mound in what would have to be described as its most important game of the year.
With No. 2 pitcher Tyler Bass nursing a shoulder injury and No. 1 pitcher Brandon Mears having pitched just two days earlier, Panther coach Bob Adamson was forced to start either sophomore Ryan Buddenhaggen or freshman Brandon Edgar, both of whom had been called up from JV only a couple weeks ago.
While Buddenhaggen's size and speed gave Baker County's lineup little to worry about, his fortitude in holding the mound for four and one-third innings and pitching in a game he had little business being in won him a big round of applause from teammates and the partisan Panther crowd as he left the game with a 3-1 lead, but with the bases loaded.
Edgar, with a little more size and speed than Buddenhaggen, but no more varsity experience, came on in relief and somehow managed to hold Baker's bats to only two more runs the rest of the way for a 5-4 Ridgeview victory.
Buddenhaggen gave up four hits, two walks and two runs, and Edgar, coming in with the bases-loaded in the fourth, allowed only two hits, though one of them was a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that closed the Panther lead to 5-4. He finished the game, and Baker's season, with a strikeout.
Mears greatly aided his young counterparts with a three-run homer in the first.
In the second game, Middleburg added its own improbable storyline to these surreal semifinals as it pummeled starting pitcher Brandon Vasquez (0.49 ERA) for seven hits and eight runs in four and a third innings and then held on behind the relief pitching of Bronco veteran Tony Cannaday for a 9-7 upset of the No. 3-state ranked Santa Fe Raiders.
Middleburg pitcher Tony Cannaday rode the
Santa Fe roller coaster and came out on top.
Cannaday encapsulated the Broncos' entire evening as he capped a two-inning scoring assault on Santa Fe with a three-run homer that put Middleburg up 9-3 in the fourth. But then, in the bottom of the inning, the joy of his homer turned into nightmare as he issued two walks and a single and set the table for Raider T.J. Spina's grand slam that closed the game to 9-7.
Despite the big emotional swing, Cannaday struck out the next two batters and retired the Raiders scoreless in the next two innings, thanks in large part to a very athletic double play by second-baseman Joey Tosto, who also drove in two runs.
(See more photos on Spotted and more on Ridgeview and Middleburg baseball in Saturday's My Clay Sun.)