‘A special opportunity’: Ballantyne Ridge is winning with first-year baseball program
Ethan Moore has been playing baseball since he was 5, but never has he had a chance to leave his mark.
The junior shortstop for Ballantyne Ridge’s new squad has loved the sport throughout his life. He’s grown up watching Atlanta Braves and South Carolina Gamecocks games for as long as he’s been suiting up on diamonds in the Charlotte area.
This season presents a new opportunity.
Moore is the leader on the baseball team at Ballantyne Ridge, the high school that opened before this academic year in south Charlotte. He’s the oldest player on the first-year baseball program that plays for its third win in its past four games against Olympic on the road at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Wolves won their first game in school history with a 4-3 victory last Friday over Ardrey Kell — the high school from which roughly half the Ballantyne Ridge players transferred, including Moore.
“Oh, it was full circle,” Moore said. “I just thought the opportunity was there, so I took it. I just wanted to come here, build something special and leave it better than when I came here.
“It’s just the opportunity to do something special. This is a special opportunity.”
‘Treating each other like their brothers does make a difference’
Ballantyne Ridge’s baseball team is made up of players would have previously played for the Knights or South Meck.
Moore is the Wolves’ only junior — the rest of his teammates are entirely freshmen and sophomores. These students have blended together in high school after coming from three different middle schools.
Sophomores Cameron Lundgren and Grady Sabin have also emerged among the Wolves’ key players. Both are strong pitchers who also play first base, and their efforts as young high school players have been catalysts for the Wolves’ early success.
“It’s not easy for sophomores to compete at the varsity level, but they’ve been doing that since the beginning of the year,” Ballantyne Ridge head coach Michael Ladka said. “The kids have embraced creating something from scratch. Every single thing that they do is building our culture. It’s really been a great experience to be a part of, watching them grow closer to one another and becoming a close-knit group has been great.
“They all get along and are friends with one another, and that’s not something that happens easily. I give the players a lot of credit for buying in. Treating each other like their brothers does make a difference.”
‘This game is more than just baseball’
Charlotte has a strong high school baseball scene, and Ladka envisions Ballantyne Ridge rising to its caliber.
Ladka, a New York native who was previously an assistant at Marvin Ridge for seven years, is in his first season as a head coach. It puts him in a similar boat as his players — they have a first-year coach who is learning from his own mistakes, just like they are as Wolves for the first time.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better situation to start out as a head coach,” Ladka said.
The team is complete with Moore, a stout defensive middle infielder who leads his team by example.
Moore is relishing his time at Ballantyne Ridge, enjoying the school’s new teachers in addition to bonding with his team. There isn’t much he loves more than baseball, and at this point, he’s usually with his teammates outside the time they’re practicing throughout the week.
“Every failure, you just keep growing from it,” Moore said. “You learn a lot. This game is more than just baseball. It’s life, really. You learn from failure in this game, and how to deal with it.
“We all want to start something here. This is a new opportunity. We want to start something, build something from the ground up, and leave it better than when we found it here, better than it was when it started.”
