Bridgewater Prevails with Big 10th Inning

By Leyton Pullin
Extra baseball was in store on opening night for the RCBL as the Bridgewater Reds defeated the Stuarts Draft Diamondback 14-6 in 10 innings.

The game started with a bang in the top of the 1st as Tyler Mahone hit a 2-Run Home Run off of Calyb King, but the Dbacks would respond in the bottom of the first Jaily Paredes RBI single before Reds starting pitcher Derek Shifflett would record four of his seven punchouts on the night to silent the Stuarts Draft offense.

In the bottom of the third the Dbacks would tally two more with back to back RBI base hits from Terrell Thompson and Will Haas to tie the game up at three. Bridgewater responded in the fifth as Tyler Mahone would rack in three more RBIs on a double that would score Jacob Greybeel, Derek Shifflett, and Grey Sherfey making the score 5-3 Bridgewater. Each team tagged on a run in the 7th inning with each leadoff hitter waling and later scoring. In the bottom of the 8th Stuarts Draft would take advantage of a Reds error and a hit batsman as Reeves Whitmore would hit a line drive into the gap for a 2 RBI double tying the score at 6-6. Neither team would put any runs across in the 9th leading to some extra baseball on opening night. The top of the 10th started for the Reds with a baserunner as George Lasse would reach base on an error and would eventually walk across as the go ahead run on a 2 RBI single by Corbin Lucas. Bridgewater would go on to put 8 runs in an error filled 10th inning and go on to win by a score of 14-6.

Derek Shifflett put in a quality start for the Reds as he went 5 innings with 3 earned runs and 7Ks. Shifflett said he was glad to be playing baseball and expressed how the win was a real team effort. Shifflett added a 1 for 5 day at the plate with two runs scored. Tyler Mahone would put up a 2 for 4 effort with 5 RBIs and 2 walks. Corbin Lucas also added 3RBIs and a 1 for 6 effort at the plate. Waring Garber would record the win for the Reds in a 3 plus inning relief performance.

For Stuarts Draft Manager Les Sandridge simply said, “ The score didn’t show what we played as.” Sandridge seemed happy with the utputhe received from his team on opening night as Terrel Williams put up a 3 for 4 night at the plate with 2 doubles and an RBI. Infeilder Will Haas also added a multi-hit performance with a 2 for 5 day with an RBI. Calyb King got the start for the Dbacks and would exit after six innings of work with 5 earned runs and 9 strikeouts. Jacob Matheney would end up with the loss for the Dbacks.

Stuarts Draft (0-1) will play host to Montezuma on Sunday at 6:30 while Bridgewater (1-0) will travel to Clover Hill in a rematch of the 2019 Championship Series.