Holdren’s two-hitter lifts Rams to victory

Rancho’s baseball team didn’t have a hit that left the infield Tuesday.
It turned out the Rams didn’t need one.

Eric Holdren threw a two-hitter and Rancho scratched across a run in the seventh inning to edge visiting Las Vegas 1-0 in a game that took just 1 hour and five minutes to play.

“We did just enough to win,” Rams coach Tom Pletsch said.

The Wildcats’ Eric Fedde took a perfect game into the seventh, but Rancho’s Zac Qualls hit a ball deep into the hole at shortstop for an infield single to lead off the seventh. He went to second when shortstop Tanner Chauncey’s throw to first sailed over the first baseman’s head.

Qualls moved to third on a chopper to third base and scored when Kevin Kline hit a slow roller toward third. Fedde bounced off the mound to field it, but his desperation throw to the plate was high, and Qualls scored easily to win the game.

“We were just trying to get somebody on base,” Pletsch said. “If we could get somebody on base, we felt like something would happen.”

The ending overshadowed a spectacular performance by Fedde, who struck out 10. He consistently threw his breaking ball for strikes early in the count, then got Rancho hitters to chase it for strike three.

“He located his pitches very well, better than I’ve seen in a long time,” Las Vegas coach Sam Thomas said. “He gave one heck of a performance. A real gutsy effort, because that’s a good hitting team over there.”

Fedde consistently threw his breaking ball for strikes early in the count, then got Rancho hitters to chase it for strike three.

“His slider was really breaking and he really did a great job setting us up by hitting that fastball inside and then (going with) the slider away,” Pletsch said. “We didn’t make the adjustment.”

Holdren, meanwhile, managed to get out of what counted for jams in the pitcher’s duel. Las Vegas had a runner on second with less than two outs in both the second and third innings, but Holdren stranded the runners there both times.

“We could have put the game away a little earlier,” Thomas said. “You can’t leave guys there with a guy like Eric Holdren on the mound.”

Holdren gave up a leadoff double to Robert Melendrez in the second. But shortstop Brandon Pletsch made a diving stop on a grounder in the hole on the next play, throwing the runner out at first and helping Holdren strand the runner.

“That was a critical point in the game for us,” said Tom Pletsch, whose team moved to 6-0 in the Northeast League, a game ahead of Las Vegas. “If he scores, they’ve got the momentum.”

Holdren struck out five and walked one. He threw just 75 pitches. Fedde threw only 66 pitches.

“It was amazing,” Thomas said. “I loved it. That was a great baseball game.”