A cold and rainy baseball affair on the turf at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex gave way to an explosive sixth inning for the Ridgefield Spudders as they took down the Battle Ground Tigers 5-3 on Friday, March 14.
After facing Battle Ground’s corner-painting lefty James Gill III on the mound across four innings of no-hit baseball as he dealt nine strikeouts, the Spudders found the gaps in the outfield against Jacob Long. Ridgefield the put bat to ball for five hits, scoring five earned runs in the sixth inning to squander the Tigers’ lead.
“They had a tough first assignment of the year and bad weather and getting to see Gill, and you know, the talk was he was just spotting the corners,” Ridgefield head coach Nick Allen said. “I think it took them a little bit to get their eyes right with it. For the first five innings, it just wasn’t competitive swings, and I don’t know what they did in there. I didn’t say anything to them, so they did it themselves. They just started taking aggressive swings and got it done.”
Long got the scoring started in the first inning for the Tigers by driving in Cooper McGowan with a single. But Ridgefield would make an early stance on that same play to end a possible first-inning rally with centerfielder Caleb Tortora launching the ball to catcher Jake Blankenship to cut off a second run and make the third out.
Ridgefield’s Landon DeBeaumont threw for three innings, giving up just two hits and striking out three while walking three. Kamden Cast added three innings and was credited with the win for the Spudders after giving up no hits. Jacob Lewis threw for one inning for the Spuds and gave up no hits.
Ridgefield pitching held the Tigers to just two hits in the outing.
“Tonight didn’t fall our way and we didn’t come out with the correct fire and energy from the start,” Battle Ground head coach Seth Johnson said. “Offensively, we struggled to get the big hit with runners on base. On the mound and defensively, I think we did a good job, but we need to communicate and support our teammates better.”
The Spudders didn’t even get a score on the board until two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Ridgefield’s Liam Ostrom got it started with a single to center field that drove in Tortora. Ostrom advanced to second on an error. Jared Gottsch singled to left field to drive in Ostrom.
Battle Ground’s Long walked Isaiah Ashenfelter to give a go-ahead runner on base for the Spudders.
Blankenship knocked a double to left field to provide a 4-3 winning lead.
