Mike Ripoli said he wasn’t at all surprised Friday when Andrew coach Frank Ganser flashed him the suicide-squeeze sign on the key play of the Thunderbolts’ 12-2 Class AA baseball quarterfinal victory over Bartonville Limestone.
“I knew it was coming before he called it,” said Ripoli, Andrew’s senior third baseman. “We practice the squeeze day in and day out.”
Practice paid off. With the score tied 0-0 and one out in the fourth inning, baserunner Brendan Christy broke from third toward the plate on Ryan Schmidgall’s pitch. Ripoli dropped a deft bunt to the right side of the infield.
The bunt left Schmidgall with only a play at first and opened the floodgates. Andrew (29-7) got seven hits in what turned into a seven-run inning.
“That squeeze was the big play for us,” Ganser said. “I was confident because we had two smart players working it.
“Mike also made the best defensive play of the game.”
Ganser referred to the flashy double play Ripoli began when he ended Limestone’s scoreless fourth inning. He dived to his right, smothered Dan Corpus’ smash, jumped up, tagged third for a force and fired to first to retire Corpus.
“That play was just reaction,” Ripoli said.
The Thunderbolts collected 12 hits, including two doubles and a single by second baseman Nick Tantillo, who walked in his other two plate appearances. Catcher Geoff Pignatiello had four RBIs, three on his bases-loaded triple in the seventh.
Junior Matt Maxwell (4-1) needed only 63 pitches in his six innings. He limited the Rockets to five hits and one earned run.
“Matt saved his best outing of the season for the playoffs,” Ganser said.
Andrew ace Ryan McGuire (9-1), scheduled to start Saturday’s semifinal, sustained an injury to his mouth while playing first base in the third inning, forcing him to leave the game.
“He went to an oral surgeon,” Ganser said. “I think he’ll be able to pitch [Saturday].”
Limestone was the only team in this year’s quarterfinals that also had reached the Elite Eight last year.
