Staff Photo/Preston Byers Mineral Ridge's Lily Melorillo is scheduled to pitch in the Rams' sectional final win over Lowellville on Wednesday.
Mineral Ridge — Mineral Ridge jumped out to Lowellville from the start and held a comfortable lead during Wednesday's home game in which the Rams won the section championship 13-4.
Lilly Melorillo went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and held the Rockets to just six hits in a perfect game. The win punched Mineral Ridge to the district tournament for his second consecutive season. Last year, the Rams made their first regional appearance in nearly 20 years.
“That doesn’t happen around here these days.” Mineral Ridge co-head coach Will Sandy talked about making it to the district tournament again. “In the '80s and early '90s, that was a big thing, and we're trying to bring it back into the program.”
On Wednesday, the Rams moved one step closer to achieving that goal. Ridge started the scoring early when Laney Wrigley, the Rams' third batter of the game, singled for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The second inning would be even more successful for Ridge. An outfield error by Lowellville sent Savannah Turek safely to second base, and he eventually homered on a wild pitch, leading 4-0 after Melorillo scored two runs.
Despite Lowellville scoring two runs in the top of the third inning, the Rams responded strongly. Mineral Ridge took the lead in the game, with five different players hitting for a 9-2 lead.
The Rockets gradually started to get back into the game, scoring one run in the fifth and sixth innings, but Ridge's offense added four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, creating a nine-point lead and ending the game.
On Wednesday, Melorillo, Maddie Garbery and Maggie Collins each had multiple RBIs for the Rams. For Lowellville, Gianna Palumbo went 1-3 and had the Rockets' only two RBIs of the game.
This loss ends Lowellville's season. The 18th-seeded Rockets defeated Lisbon's David Anderson 12-2 in the regional semifinals on Monday to advance to a matchup with third-seeded Mineral Ridge.
Although the final score showed a lopsided result, Sandy and co-head coach Joe Mellorillo said after the game that the team still has a lot of room for improvement before next week's district tournament.
“I think our message is that there is always more to work on.” Sandy said. “There's always something you have to work on what you get out of the game, whether you play it as perfectly as possible or not. Today was far from that.”
Sandy and Melorillo said they expect a tough battle against seventh-seeded Maplewood, the Rams' next playoff opponent.
“We're a good match.” Melorillo said. “As Coach Will told our team, they're just like us. New coach, young team. They're going to come in, and they're going to be hot. It’s going to be exciting and it’s going to be our job to hold them back a little bit and start strong and finish strong.”
Mineral Ridge will travel to Jackson-Milton for the Division IV, Northeast 1 District Tournament. The winner of Ridge vs. Maplewood, scheduled for Monday at 5:30 p.m., will face the winner of the Matthews (No. 1 seed) vs. Badger (No. 15 seed) game at 4 p.m.
Do you have any interesting stories? Email Preston Byers at pbyers@tribtoday.com. Follow him at X (formerly Twitter) @PresByers.
