OXFORD — The breaks hadn’t been going the Ross High School baseball team’s way.
Close game after close game slipped just out of reach, a stretch that saw the Rams drop four straight — the last three by a combined five runs. The margins were thin.
So when the opportunity finally came on a wet Saturday morning, Ross made sure it didn’t slip away.
The Rams scored four unanswered runs — one in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth — to rally past McNicholas 6-5 in the Reds Futures High School Showcase at Miami University’s McKie Field, snapping the skid in a way that matched how they believed they’d been playing all along.
“We’re a good team, and we know that,” Ross junior shortstop and pitcher Josiah Lynch said. “Our record doesn’t really show that, but right now we’re playing good baseball, and today really showed that. We’re able to fight back and stay in games even when we get down.”
Ross (5-6) had been living on that edge.
Each of the previous three losses came down to a swing, a bounce or a single play that didn’t go its way. Rams coach Brad Voegele said the message has never changed — keep competing, and eventually, one would flip.
“I didn’t know if it was going to be the next day,” Voegele said. “But the way we’ve executed and done some things, we’re going to be pretty good. We just can’t give up outs like we have been.”
Saturday, Ross found a way to take them back.
Trailing late, the Rams chipped away before breaking through in the sixth inning, stringing together the kind of at-bats that had been just out of reach during the losing streak. The three-run frame gave Ross its first lead since early in the game and brought a dugout to life that had been waiting for a moment like it.
“It seems like those games, we’re one ground ball or one hit away,” Lynch said. “So for it to go our way today means a lot. It gives us a lot of energy for the games coming.”
While the offense delivered the late push, Lynch sealed it.
The junior, typically an infielder, moved to the mound for the final three innings and shut the door. He allowed just one hit and didn’t give up a run.
“I just go in there, throw strikes, get outs,” Lynch said. “I’m focused on getting ground balls and letting the defense work. I’ve got a great defense behind me, so I trust them.”
Lynch recorded just one strikeout but consistently worked ahead in counts, keeping McNicholas off balance and forcing routine plays behind him — a formula Ross executed cleanly when it mattered most.
It was a stabilizing finish after senior starter Brady Gillespie kept Ross within reach early, working five innings while allowing four earned runs on eight hits.
“Being down a few runs, I told them just keep fighting,” Voegele said. “They do it every time. It’s amazing.”
The win didn’t erase the early-season frustrations, but it validated the belief inside Ross’ dugout.
Voegele pointed to a series of correctable mistakes — defensive miscues, baserunning errors and giveaways that had piled up during the losing streak — as the difference between the Rams’ record and their potential.
“We’ve kicked the ball around a lot,” Voegele said. “We’ve had errors in the field, baserunning mistakes — things we’re not accustomed to. But they’re fixable. We practice those situations every day.”
And Saturday, Ross showed what it can look like when those mistakes are minimized.
Even as rain fell throughout much of the game, the Rams stayed composed, kept pressure on and, most importantly, didn’t let another close finish slip away.
“Don’t stop believing,” Voegele said. “That’s going to be key, and that’s going to be crucial. They didn’t stop believing.”
