Ridgefield Raptors fans made the half-hour trip to David Story Field in Longview for a doubleheader on Tuesday, July 25, and their team didn’t disappoint.
The Raptors earned the season series known as The Columbia River Cup against West Coast League rival Cowlitz Black Bears.
Ridgfield won the opener 3-0 before falling 7-6 to the Black Bears in the second game. The win by Cowlitz means the team is, like Ridgefield, still in the playoff picture. In fact, the two teams might face each other again in the first round of the postseason.
The Columbia River Cup series is presented through a partnership with six ports for the season series between the two teams. The ports of Ridgefield, Longview, Woodland, Kalama, Vancouver and Camas-Washougal all support the series.
Gus Farah, executive vice president of operations for both teams, said The Columbia River Cup was created to draw two fan bases in relatively close proximity to each other’s stadiums. It seemed to work, as a number of Ridgefield fans made the trip north, among them Jack Thompson, a Battle Ground area resident of 44 years and lifelong baseball fan.
Thompson said Vancouver “missed the ticket a long time ago” to get a baseball team of its own, but he said he’s pleased to see Ridgefield find success with a relatively new organization.
Farah noted that, win or lose, The Columbia River Cup is not a rivalry that anyone is losing sleep over, as ultimately the league’s goal is to further develop the area’s collegiate baseball players.
“It’s been tough. We’re losing guys,” Raptors head coach Chris Kota said. “Guys have to get back to school, and so we’re just trying to keep a roster full and keep going,”
Looking toward the playoffs, Kota said the roster will be thin, but the Raptors are not alone in the struggle as players report back to their school’s teams.
“So we’re just going to have to do with what we have and just keep playing hard,” Kota said.
The doubleheader was delayed by 39 minutes due to umpires being caught in traffic caused by brushfires, said Jason Krohn, director of baseball and game day operations for Ridgefield.
With the first pitch occurring at 4:39 p.m., the Raptors acted as the home team in “enemy territory” due to the first game of the doubleheader being played as a rescheduled rainout game that otherwise would have been played in Ridgefield.
Blake Hammond, of Northwest Nazarene University, was solid on the mound with five strikeouts in five complete innings as he secured the win for the Raptors. Hammond was faced with bases-loaded situations more than once and overcame the adversity to hold the Black Bears scoreless in five innings.
After Hammond, Ross Goldschlag, of Sonoma State University, held the Black Bears scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings for the Raptors to win in shutout fashion.
On offense, the Raptors had nine hits compared with Cowlitz’s four. A series of situational offensive plays allowed the Raptors to go up 2-0 in the second inning with Julian Nunez, of San Diego Community College, laying down a sacrifice bunt that moved up two runners who then scored on a single by Tristan Gomes, of University of Portland, and a fielder’s choice by Jack Salmon, of Golden West College.
“It’s important that everybody plays their part, and we got a couple of bunts down that helped, and normally when you play the game, it works out well for you,” Kota said.
The second game of the doubleheader resulted in a 7-6 loss for Ridgefield, but the win helped Cowlitz in a big way.
“It’s a little bit of a dream I guess, but Cowlitz is two and half games ahead right now, and Ridgefield has already clinched because of the first-half championship,” Farah said. “So it would be really fun if we started today. We’d play each other. I’d rather not but won’t control that for another week and a half.”
The next games for Ridgefield include two final home games at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex against the Walla Walla Sweets. Games two and three of the series are both at 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 2, and Thursday, Aug. 3. The Raptors then travel to Corvallis for a weekend series against the Knights before the West Coast League playoffs, which are scheduled for Aug. 7 through Aug. 11. Ridgefield’s first playoff game will be at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the RORC. The Raptors’ opponent will be determined by the outcomes of the final regular season games.
For more information, and to stay up to date with the Raptors, visit ridgefieldraptors.com and follow the team on social media.
