Reds Snap Shockers’ Win Streak, Take First Place

By Dean Barker
​In a battle of #1 at #2, the Bridgewater Reds avenged a 10-2 loss last week to the RCBL Shockers, beating them 9-1 on Wednesday, June 28. With the win, the Reds improved to 11-4 and took first place in the RCBL, while the Shockers fell to 9-4, fell into second place, and saw their eight game winning streak come to a close.
 
“They’ll get down, but they’ll come right back and do what they need to do,” Reds assistant coach Dennis Miller said. 
 
Derek Shifflett got the win to improve to 4-0, pitching four scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and two strikeouts. Chris Huffman pitched the first four innings, giving up one earned run on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Brett Tharp pitched the ninth inning, giving up an unearned run on one hit with one walk and no strikeouts.
 
“They hit the ball well, I mean they put the ball in play, our defense just made a lot of good plays,” Shifflett said. “Luke (Keister) over there, he had (roughly) four line drives that should’ve been hits that weren’t. He put the ball on the right side of the field all day, we just made plays.”
 
Huffman agreed with Shifflett that the defense was key.
 
“I didn’t really have my best stuff tonight, but you know, just battle through it; you’ve gotta battle through things like that and (I) relied on my defense a little more tonight, and they played really well behind me tonight. Derek and Brett came in and shut the door, so it always helps when you’ve got good pitching coming in behind you.”
 
Kaden Spaid took the loss to fall to 0-1, pitching five innings and giving up seven runs (six earned) on three hits with six walks and four strikeouts. Jaden Click pitched three innings and gave up two earned runs on six hits with no walks and two strikeouts. 
 
The Reds got on board in the first, as a two-out grounder to third from Huffman was thrown away, allowing Brett Tharp to score from third. Harrison Madagan and Nick Arnold would double back-to-back in the top of the second to tie it up, although Arnold was thrown out trying to stretch his into a triple. 
 
A solo shot from Noah Cornwell made it 2-1 Reds in the bottom of the second. Caden Swartley’s sacrifice fly to left drove in Liam Simpson to extend the Reds lead to 3-1.
 
“It was another 3-0 count, so I had a feeling another fastball was coming, so I don’t want to miss this one,” Cornwell said. “I (swing 3-0) every time, so if it’s there I’m swinging at it.”
 
Caden Swartley and Jordan Yankey hit back-to-back RBI singles to make it 5-1 in the sixth. Tharp was hit with the bases loaded to push the lead to 6-1. Cornwell doubled off the left field wall to make it 8-1.
 
Tharp doubled in the bottom of the eighth, stole third, and came home on a wild throw from the catcher, pushing the lead to 9-1.
 
In the top of the ninth, Bodie Pullen reached on an error at second and Haden Madagan came home for their second run, but that would be all they could push across.
 
The Reds had nine runs on nine hits with three errors and eight runners left on base. Cornwell led the way, going 3-4 with three RBIs. Swartley was 1-3 with two RBIs. Simpson was 2-4. Yankey was 1-4 with an RBI. Tharp was 1-3 with an RBI. Huffman went 1-5.
 
The Shockers had two runs on nine hits with an error and ten base runners stranded. Harrison Madagan was 3-4. Haden Madagan was 2-4. Arnold was 1-4 with an RBI. Connor Houser and Pullen were both 1-4. Frankie Ritter was 1-5. 
 
“Kudos to them for coming out after the game we had on Saturday,” Shockers head coach Nolan Potts said. “We beat them pretty good, they came out and responded, they had two big guys on the mound. We knew we were going to see Chris and Derek, and weren’t able to get anything going, but you know, (after an) eight game winning streak, one game’s not going to bring us down, so we’ll get back to it on Friday night.”
 
The Reds will be back in action when they host the Clover Hill Bucks on Friday, June 30 at 7:30 pm. The Shockers will look to bounce back at home against the Broadway Bruins on Friday, June 30 at 7:30 pm. 

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