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After that long, he still gets surprised, even if he should expect the unexpected, or, as in Tuesday night’s case, expect the expected.
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Arcadia's Brock Haines slides safely to second base on a steal and knocks the ball away from Alma's Tim Ruff during a second round playoff game Tuesday in Arcadia. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
The Raiders opened their bid for a third consecutive WIAA state tournament bid with a 9-5 win over Alma.
It was a sloppy game with nine combined errors — six by Alma.
The Raiders already beat Alma twice this season, and they may have been looking ahead to a matchup with Melrose-Mindoro — to whom they lost twice this season.
Arcadia had also not played in just over a week.
So, from the outside looking in, it was almost expected Arcadia have a little hiccup. Not in Anderson’s book.
“I really didn’t expect this,” he said. “We have to be more focused and ready to play. We won’t get away with this stuff on Friday — making errors, missing signs, bad base running. We can’t do those things.”
The Raiders know they should have played better, too. They’re not making excuses for themselves, but maybe they were a little worried about Round 2, instead of Alma.
“We’ll be ready Friday,” said senior pitcher Dylan Pronschinske, who struck out three, walked one and hit three in five innings in earing the win. “We know we have two tough teams ahead of us in Melrose-Mindoro and West Salem. We’ve already lost twice to both of them this season.”
Despite the sloppy start to the playoffs, the Raiders still got by, even if it came with a lot of help from Alma.
“I expected both teams to play better,” Anderson said. “Alma had been playing nearly error-free the last couple of games, and they had a lot of errors. We are lucky they did.”
The game started well for the Rivermen. Brady Ritscher was hit by a pitch to lead off the game and ended up scoring on a Mitch Schamaun two-out, RBI single.
In the bottom half of the inning, however, it didn’t take long to see things weren’t going to be pretty for the Alma defense.
Tyler Manley led off the game with a single that rolled right past Jordan Ludwigson in center field.
Manley wound up on third, and scored when Korry Iberg tried to pick him off and threw about two feet over the head of Ritscher.
The Rivermen committed two more errors in the
second inning, spotting the Raiders a 5-1 lead. Manley came away with an RBI single and Dylan Pronschinske had a two-run single.
Heading into the top of the sixth, Arcadia seemed to have a comfortable 8-3 lead when Anderson pulled Pronschinske for Andy Meinerz.
“We needed to get all those guys in (to pitch),” Anderson said of Pronschinske, Meinerz and Manley, who got the save.
Meinerz went one inning, but had to get himself out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam.
“I was a little worried,” Pronschinske said. “He was really ready to go once the bases were loaded.”
Meinerz ended up surrendering two runs, and Manley closed things without a problem.
Manley, who celebrated his birthday Tuesday, went 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs and a stolen base. Isaac Vazquez was also 2-for-4 with a stolen base for the Raiders, while teammate Craig Thomas had was 1-for-2 with an RBI double.
Chris Glander was 2-for-4 with two RBIs to lead Alma.
