Courtesy of Mike Ellis from the Jamestown News…..
War Memorial Stadium hosted a Colt League double header last night. As you
walked through those gates, many memories of better times for the venerable
old ballpark came rushing back. On this night, four teams took the field
for before a small crowd in seats that have seen better days. Still, one
couldn’t help think about the “good old days” when War Memorial was a state
of the art facility and what could have been if we had only seen fit to
spend some money on some upgrades. Oh well, we regress.
In game one, Southwest and Ragsdale 2 met on the diamond. Southwest wasted
little time in taking charge as Ragsdale 2 starter Connor Burrows was unable
to get out of the first inning. Four walks, an error and two base hits led
to four Southwest runs.
Southwest starter, Sebastian Luke made that lead hold up as he went four
innings, allowing no runs and only one hit as he faced one over the minimum.
Southwest went on to add 3 more in the fourth as they eventually wrapped up
a 12 – 1 victory.
Leadoff hitter Austin Zente went 3 for 4 at the plate with a double to lead
Southwest. Andrew Bullock was 2 for 3 with a triple and 2 RBI’s. Matt Wade
also had 3 hits in 5 at bats with a couple of RBI’s. After Luke went the
first four innings on the mound, Zach Saylor pitched the final three for
Southwest and allowed an unearned run on only 2 hits as Southwest improved
to 5 – 1.
Ragsdale 2 dropped their first game of the season as they fell to 5 – 1.
Ragsdale only had 3 hits for the night as Brooke Pritchett singled and
scored the only run in the sixth inning. Kip Brandenburg and Tanner Harris
collected the other two hits.
GAME 2
Ragsdale 1 faced Eastern Guilford in the nightcap. Similar to the first
game, the outcome was decided in the first. After Eastern opened the first
with an unearned run to go up 1 – 0, Ragsdale responded in the bottom of the
inning as they sent 10 men to the plate and scored 7 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks
and a hit batter. From there, it was just holding on as three different
Ragsdale 1 pitchers combined to give up 2 runs on 4 hits in the seven
innings of work. Tim Ambrose started and pitched 3 innings with 3 hits and
an unearned run. Avery Hodges pitched the middle two innings and gave up no
hits and no runs. Kennan Lynn wrapped up the final two and gave up a run
and a hit.
Ragsdale 1 scored single runs in the second, third and fifth to record the
10 – 2 win to improve their record to 6 – 0. In addition to his two innings
of relief work, Avery Hodges had a big night at the plate, going 3 for 4
with 3 RBI’s. Ben Horkey was 2 for 4 with an RBI as Ragsdale 1 collected 8
hits.
Eastern Guilford’s M. Johnson was 2 for 3 at the plate and suffered the
loss, pitching 3 1/3 innings giving up 9 runs on 8 hits. Travis Hunt
pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and gave up 1 run but no hits. Eastern
Guilford fell to 2 – 5.