The St. Marys Roughrider baseball team bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to have a four-run inning to defeat the Marion Local Flyers 6-5 Monday evening at K. C. Geiger Park.

“We have to clean up giving other teams too many opportunities,” Riders Head Coach Adam Graves said. “We shouldn’t given up any runs in the first inning. Luke (Rammel) pitched well in the first inning, but we had an error and then we had a play where we didn’t show any urgency on.”

The Flyers started off with a pair of unearned runs in the first inning.

With one out, Ian Rindler reached on an error. Following a strikeout, Hayden Poeppelman drew a walk and Bryant Meyer reached on an infield single to second to load the bases. Rindler came home to score on a walk to Parker Hess and a second run came home when Damon Cramer walked to score Poeppelman. Derek Knapke grounded out to end the inning.

Neither team scored in the second or third inning, but the Riders broke out with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Jacob Kaiser drew a walk and Preston Rupert singled to left. Joel Kogge laid a perfect bunt down the third baseline to load the bases. Kaiser came home with a single to left by Aiden Meinerding and Reese Howell lifted a sacrifice fly to score Rupert to tie the game. Keaton Fischbach hit a bloop single to right to reload the bases. Kogge came home to score on a single to left by Rammel to give the Riders a 3-2 lead and Meinerding capped the scoring with a run on a sacrifice fly to right by Kasey Gross.

“When we scored four runs in the fourth inning,” Graves said. “But then we let them get two runs and tie the game back up. We have to cut that out if we want to be successful from here on out.”

In the fifth inning, Marion Local tied the game back up with a pair of runs.

Griffin Bruns reached on an error and went to second on a wild pitch. Ian Rindler singled to score Bruns and Rindler went to second on the throw. Ethan Heitkamp drew a walk, but he was forced at second on a fielder’s choice hit by Poeppelman with Rindler going to third.

Poeppelman stole second, but Meyer hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Rindler to tie the game.

The Riders took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth inning.

With one out, Rupert singled to left and following a fly out, Rupert went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single to left by Meinerding.

St. Marys scored what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With two outs, Gross reached on a walk and went to third when Dyllan Fink reached on an error. Fink also went to second on the error. Gross came home on a wild pitch to make the score 6-4.

The Flyers scored a run in the top of the seventh but left the bases loaded on a line drive back to the pitcher and a ground out to short to end the game.

Luke Rammel pitched a sixth and two-thirds inning giving up five runs, one earned, on six hits. He struck out one and walked seven. Blake Dingledine came in and threw one pitch to end the game.

“Luke gave us six and two-thirds innings,” Graves said. “Blake (Dingledine) comes on in a tight situation and throws one pitch and gets us out of it. That is a tough situation for a high school kid to come into. A lot of times they try to do too much, but he went in there and trusted his defense.”

“Our pitchers have done

a good job this year of trusting our defense,” Graves said. “Sometimes our defense has let them down. When we start to play solid in the field and get the pitching that we have got this year we have a chance to be successful.”

Aiden Meinerding went 3-for-3 with three singles and two runs batted in. Preston Rupert and Keaton Fischbach were 2-for3 in the game with two singles by Rupert and a single and double by Fischbach.

“It was good to see Preston Rupert going 2-for-3,” Graves said. “Aiden Meinerding has been coming on and swinging the bat good. He had three singles and Keaton Fischbach has been doing a good job this year as the designated hitter.”

“Overall we had a solid performance and we will take a win when we can get them. We have to put some wins together the rest of the week to get ready for the tournament.”

The Riders (11-6) get back to action on Tuesday when they host Fort Recovery and they finish the WBL play on Thursday at Elida and at Bath on Friday. They open tournament play next Wednesday, May 21 at Van Wert at 5:00.