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Falcons fall just short

Ronny Lowe is strong on the mound, and Ridgewood scores three runs in the fifth to reach the Class 4A final.

By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 16, 2002

TAMPA -- Jeremy Bellotti brought the postgame news conference to a halt to let everyone know something: Going undefeated is tough; and winning 32 games is no easy task; and being ranked No.2 in the country is a lot of pressure and it was a darned good season for his Dunedin Falcons.

Bellotti is right. But once again, everything but a state title will have to be enough for Dunedin.

In an upset, the Falcons, ranked No.2 in the country by Baseball America but almost certain to ascend to No.1 with a state championship, fell short against Ridgewood 3-1 on Wednesday at Legends Field.

The Rams (27-7) took the Class 4A semifinal thanks to one big inning fueled by an error and a spat of wildness from starter Ryan Harvey. With three runs in the fifth, Ridgewood advanced to today's final against Jacksonville Bishop Kenny.

And Dunedin is left once again to wonder: what if?

What if Harvey had fielded Jon Koenigsfeld's bunt and threw true to first base instead of wildly to put two runners in scoring position.

What if Ridgewood's Josh Le'Roy hadn't later smacked a two-run single just under the glove of second baseman Matt Gregory?

What if Ridgewood's Danny Lotz hadn't walked with the bases loaded during the same inning?

And what if with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Steve Doetsch's on-the-money line drive hadn't been right at first baseman Lotz for the final out of the game?

What if, what if, what if?

"We can say we did all these things, but the hardest thing is we couldn't win state," first baseman Brian Dopirak said. "We had the offense. We had the defense. We had the pitching. We had the hitting. We had the coaching. We had everything to make a championship team. But baseball is a funny game."

No one is laughing in Dunedin today, though. The Falcons (32-1) probably were going to be named No.1 in the Baseball America poll Monday, according to senior editor John Royster because previous No.1 Missouri City (Texas) Elkins lost last week.

They also were behind Elkins in the School Sports poll, which provides ESPN.com's high school coverage, and were No.3 in the USA Today poll.

It was all there for the Falcons, who had hoped to end all of the talk and criticism of their recent playoff performances.

And then it was gone. Ronny Lowe, Ridgewood's senior lefty, gave up one unearned run in the first then retired 12 in a row between the second and fifth. The Rams seemed unimpressed afterward.

"I thought they were going to be bigger," shortstop Richie Hittel said.

The Falcons had only one hit through five innings but had two excellent chances in the last two innings.

With runners on first and second and no outs in the sixth, Lowe struck out Dopirak, got Harvey to fly out and Gene Novak to ground out, successfully navigating the Falcons' 3, 4 and 5 hitters.

In the seventh, Brad Chamberlain's single and a walk to Bellotti loaded the bases for Doetsch, with Dopirak and his 12 home runs on deck.

The liner to first, though, ended the season.

"We kept waiting for that bang point," Dopirak said. "Usually, we build on that. We've been doing it all year. But we couldn't find it." The Falcons chalked the loss up to the baseball gods frowning once again on Dunedin's title hopes.

"Life goes on," Bellotti said. "Tonight is going to be tough. It's going to be real tough."

"The whole game we were catching bad breaks," Doetsch said. "You never know what's going to happen. I believe in the baseball gods, and they weren't on our side tonight."

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