Harris helps Prairie Ridge move on

Sometimes all it takes is one play, one opening for a game to turn.

For Prairie Ridge on Tuesday, opportunity came knocking in the very first inning.

Taking full advantage of Neuqua Valley senior center fielder Jack Amaro losing a ball in the sun with one out, the Wolves immediately pounced as the miscue indirectly led to a pair of runs.

Thanks to senior right-hander Ryan Harris, those two runs were all the Wolves would need as they pulled out a 2-1 victory over Neuqua Valley at North Central College in Naperville to advance to the semifinals of the 2011 Phil Lawler Summer Classic.  

In the first meeting between the two schools since Prairie Ridge beat Neuqua Valley 7-1 in a 2008 Class 4A state semifinals, Harris was just a little bit better than both of his opposite numbers, a pair of juniors for Neuqua Valley: Danny Mokrzyki and David Gerber.

On the way to tossing a complete game, Harris scattered four hits while just allowing one run.

Perhaps more remarkably, Harris kept the Wildcats at bay with just one strikeout, which came to end the first inning. After that, it was all about pitching to contact and let his defense go to work for him.

“(Tuesday) was just getting into the kitchen – getting fastballs in there,” Harris said. “That was basically it.”

As the No. 1 seed in Pool B, Prairie Ridge (37-20) will meet Maine South, the No. 2 seed in Pool A, in Wednesday night’s second semifinal at Benedictine University.

Stiffening up when it mattered most, Harris stranded the potential tying run in scoring position in four straight innings, spanning the third through the sixth.

“Our defense was really big,” Harris said. “Offense was fine, but we definitely picked ourselves up (defensively). We’re never out of this.”

After the Wildcats (24-10) stranded a pair of runners on the corners to end the third, junior catcher Dylan Goss got into scoring position with one out in the fourth, but Harris left him standing on third when the inning ended.

Threatening yet again one inning later, Neuqua Valley squandered a golden opportunity to score after getting its first two men on in the fifth, only to see Harris pick a runner off second base and induce a double play to get out of trouble.

Harris picked off another man at second in the sixth after the Wildcats received a leadoff single from Tanner Giesel before pinch-running for him and getting that man to second courtesy of a wild pitch.

“We made the plays. 2-1 game. One mistake ends up being the difference, as well the pickoffs,” Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro said. “Those pickoffs were huge. Grab momentum there and take them out of scoring position. Those were huge.”  

However, none of Harris’ exploits would have mattered if not for the fortuitous happenstance that the Wolves received off the bat of junior center fielder Jordan Getzelman, who went 2-for-2 with a run scored, before capitalizing on with back-to-back RBI from catcher Matt Krenz and first baseman Lucas Keller.

“It’s a small mistake, but we turned (it) big,” Harris said. “We score big in the first inning, we know we have a game.”

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