With just one senior on its roster, Riverside has taken its fair share of lumps this season.

The youthful squad continued to improve all year however and now, thanks to a complete-game victory by Jared McCready, the Bulldogs will be playing Saturday night in the district final.

"We are definitely playing our best baseball right now," Riverside coach David Gute said.

The Bulldogs made St. Albert believers Wednesday night with a 6-5 decision in the Class 2A District 16 semifinal game at Chuck Wolever Field.

McCready, spotted to a 3-0 lead after the top of the first, did a solid job of battling his way out of jams throughout the game. He escaped from a bases-loaded situation in the second without giving up a run and got out of a bases-loaded no-outs mess in the bottom of the seventh.

With a two-run deficit, St. Albert refused to quietly head toward summer vacation. The Falcons loaded the bases by getting an infield single by Patrick Fetter, a double by Cale Yates and an error on Jace Cochran's grounder.

The sequence brought Gute to the mound, but the Riverside coach said he had no thoughts of removing McCready.

"I told him 'you're our man,'" Gute said.

McCready induced an infield fly, and a ground ball, which he committed an error on to allow one run to score.

Keeton Wright fielded a grounder at third and threw home for the second out, which brought up Shay Bales with two away.

Bales had been white-hot in the postseason. He reached all five times he stepped to the plate in Tuesday's win over Griswold, including a two-run homer, and reached his first three times Wednesday with a run scored.

"Shay's had a great year," Schreiber said.

But the Bulldogs got a groundout to shortstop Nathan Joy and a nice stretch by first baseman Jason Frain to end the game and send Riverside on to the district final at 7 p.m. Saturday at Chuck Wolever Field against Logan-Magnolia.

The Bulldogs scored three times with three hits and two St. Albert errors in the first and added a run in the second on a walk, a double by McCready and sac fly by Wright.

"Early on we didn't come ready to play," Schreiber said.

Two more runs came in the second inning, when Justin Wild got stuck in a run-down between third and home but scored on an error that also allowed the batter, Joel Sowers, to advance all the way to third base. He scored on a groundout to make the score 6-2 after three innings.

"That (having the early lead) helped a lot," McCready said.

Patrick Fetter had two hits, including an RBI triple in the first inning, and scored two runs.

No. 9 hitter Jake Brown had two hits and scored two runs, for St. Albert.

The loss ends the prep careers of five St. Albert seniors - Bales, starting pitcher Richie Moore, Cale Yates, Patrick Fetter and Alan Caniglia.

"They've had a great run," Schrieber said.

Riverside 312 000 0 - 6 6 3

St. Albert 200 101 1 - 5 9 4

Jared McCready and Joel Sowers. Richie Moore and Cale Yates. W-McCready (4-4), L-Moore.

Records: Riverside (10-15), St. Albert (14-20).

~Jeff DeLuca~ Staff Writer Daily Nonpareil 07.13.06