A memorable tournament ride …50 years later

Martins Ferry’s baseball team reached regional finals in 1976

By Jeff Harrison

  It was exciting…it was heartbreaking, but 50 years later, it’s still memorable.

  “It” was the spring of 1976 when the Martins Ferry High School baseball team turned what was a so-so regular season into one for the books with a surprising tournament run that reached a level that hadn’t been achieved in decades.

  Unfortunately, the quest to advance to the Ohio State Baseball Tournament for the first time since 1939 came up one run short but as the years passed, that year’s trip to the Class AA Regional Championship Game has stood the test of time as the farthest the Purple Riders have advanced since the 1930s.

  In the Purple Riders’ tournament run, the bats got hot as a lineup that alternated righthanded-lefthanded batters (righties hitting 1-3-5-7-9 and lefties 2-4-6-8 in the batting order, nearly every regular was hitting above .300.

  It took three games to win the Class AA Sectional – which took place at Bridgeport’s Perkins Field – that year.

  First up was a 7-2 victory over Union Local, with junior George Strizak earning the pitching win while the leaders of the 11-hit attack were senior Ed Risden with a triple and single; junior George Becca with three singles and junior Jeff Harrison with two singles.

  Next came a 7-2 win over Bridgeport, with Don ‘Boo Boo’ Reese collecting the pitching victory and the Riders banging out 10 hits including three singles by junior Rick Leach, a triple by Risden and doubles by Reese and freshman Keith Vrotsos.

  The Riders earned the Sectional Championship by outslugging St. Clairsville, 11-7, with Reese again earning the mound decision while Ferry pounded 15 hits off of St. C.’s hard-throwing junior Gene Cattane including a double and two singles by junior Bill Snyder, three singles by Vrotsos, a double and single by Reese, two singles each by senior Dave Chambers, Becca and Harrison, and a triple by Leach.

  In a one-game district co-final (also at Bridgeport) – Ferry emerged with a 10-9 victory over Toronto to claim the title. Reese got his third straight tournament pitching win and the 12-hit offense featured two doubles and a single by Becca, a double and single by Harrison, two singles by Risden and a double by Snyder.

  The Regional at Columbus Whetstone High was a Friday-Saturday event, and the Riders kept it going by defeating highly-touted Maysville – a 20-win squad – by a 4-0 count. Reese tossed a two-hitter and although the Riders’ bats cooled off with only five hits – led by Chambers with two singles – a four-run sixth inning proved the difference.

  That meant Saturday afternoon showdown with Meigs – which had defeated Columbus Wehrle in the other semifinal game – for the right to go to the Class AA State Tournament.

  Ferry took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Vrotsos singled; stole second and scored on an RBI single by Risden.

  Meigs took the lead in the top of the sixth, combining a single, an error and another single for the tying run and then getting what proved to be the game-winning tally via a wild pitch.

  The Riders had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Risden led off with a triple, but the next three batters failed to get the ball out of the infield and left Risden stranded and the season over.

  Strizak took the loss in the finale while Risden had a triple and single to lead the five-hit offense.

  The Purple Riders finished with an overall record of 19-11, still second on the all-time single-season victory list. Finished with 19-11 record; second most wins in school history.

  The team - coached by Ed Davis (in his seventh and final season at the MFHS baseball helm) with John Magistro as the assistant – included seniors Risden, Chambers, Chuck Krieger and Mike Tobin; juniors Reese, Leach, Snyder, Becca, Harrison, Strizak and Ron Swearingen; sophomores Pat Ging and Tom Williams; and freshmen Keith Vrotsos and Doug Swearingen.

  Meigs, by the way, was another surprise entry in the Regional as they were a sub-.500 team before tournament play began, but they had a not-so-secret weapon of sorts in rubber-armed pitcher Jeff McKinney. McKinney was an “iron man” when there were no inning or pitch restrictions, having won every one of the team’s 13 victories.

  Meigs went on to lose to Elida – the eventual state champion – in the Class AA State Semifinals by a 1-0 count in a game that featured just one hit (Elida’s Rick Rumer tossed a no-hitter and Meigs’ McKinney had a one-hitter), finishing the season with a 13-12 record.

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  The Purple Riders were no strangers to the state tournament way back – reaching the state tournament four times in a decade under Coach Fred Hart – 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1939 (back then, there was no regional level so the district champions advanced directly to the state event) – achieving the ultimate success in 1930 by winning the Class A State Championship with a sparkling 21-1 record (a mark that still stands as most wins in a season).

  Prior to that 1976 season, Ferry had reached the Regional in 1964 but lost in the semifinals and the best tournament run since '76 came in 2017 when the Riders reached the Regional only to fall to Hiland – the eventual Division III State Runner-Up – by a 10-0 score in the semifinals.