Courtesy of Mike Ellis from the Jamestown News…..
It was an old fashioned pitchers’ duel at Jamestown on Friday night as the
visiting East Forsyth Eagles and the home team Ragsdale Tigers squared off.
Neither team could find a way to get a runner to cross home plate and it
went to the bottom of the tenth as a 0 – 0 tie. It was at that point that
freshman Colin Lipke worked the count to 3 – 2 off East Forsyth’s third
pitcher of the night, Dylan Kirkman and then got a one out walk. A passed
ball moved him down to second, before Kirkman got the second out of the
inning on a line drive to right field. When leadoff hitter Ben Fischer got
a 3 – 0 count, East walked him intentionally to set up runners at first and
second with two out. Sophomore Niko Orfanedes worked the count to 2 – 2 and
then lined a solid single to right field, scoring Lipke from second with the
game’s winning and only run to give the Tigers the 1 – 0 win.
The pitching on the night was outstanding. For East Forsyth, starter Dylan
Ward went seven strong innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 14
batters. Ward was in command and of his 7 innings of work, he only had one
in which he did not strike out at least two batters. Eric Corbett came on
in relief and worked two innings, giving up 0 hits, walking 1 and striking
out 1. Dylan Kirkman came on in the 10th and suffered the loss, giving up
two walks and the game winning RBI single.
For Ragsdale, their pitching was just as outstanding. Sophomore starter Tim
Ambrosa went four innings, giving up four singles and walking three batters,
but pitching out of trouble in the second and third. In the second, Ambrosa
retired the first two batters before giving up three consecutive singles to
load the bases before getting the third out on a grounder to short. In the
third, East Forsyth loaded the bases on a single, a walk and with one out an
intentional walk. Ambrosa then got a strike out and the third out on a hard
hit line drive to second base to pitch out of the jam. Sophomore Matt
Horkey pitched the next five innings, giving up three hits and one walk
while striking out ten batters. Horkey got in trouble in the sixth as the
first two batters got on and were moved to second and third with one out on
a sacrifice bunt. Horkey got two strikeouts around a walk to get out of
trouble. Mitch Carstens pitched the tenth and got the win as he gave up a
walk and a base hit, but with runners on second and third got out of the
inning by striking out the final batter. Colin Lipke at second base made a
great play on the base hit up the middle by diving and knocking the ball
down to keep the runners on first and second and setting up Carstens getting
out of the inning without further damage.
Ragsdale improved their record to 4 – 0 and 2 – 0 in the Piedmont Triad
while East Forsyth fell to 1 – 1 in Conference play. Both teams played a
great game with outstanding pitching and strong defense displayed. Dylan
Ward not only pitched well for East Forsyth but he also went 3 for 5 with
two singles and a double. Evan Rogers was 2 for 5. Kyle Morrison was 1 for
3 for the Tigers with a double and a walk while Niko Orfanedes was 1 for 4
with the game winning RBI single.
As I said earlier in week, rags dale can’t be beat this year. Sorry triad 4a
Wish I could have been there to see the whole game but very glad I stopped by after the JV game. Huge win for Ragsdale. That was a great play by Lipke at second and I was very happy to see Niko get the game winning hit. Fun to watch the team dogpile out in the infield once they had the win.
Big game next Tuesday when NW Guilford comes to Jamestown.
Some creative keeping of the book in Jamestown. We are still looking for the 2 additional hits Dylan gave up. Ground balls hit directly at people that hit the glove and are fumbled are usually errors. We only saw the 1 double by the ragsdale left hander. someone building some stats.
What you saw was a loss!
To Bill P:
Not creative scorekeeping, calling them like I see them.
In the fourth with two outs the first baseman let the ball go between his legs for an error. Next batter hit a ball in the hole that was knocked down but there was no play at either base. That =’s a basehit. Ball wasn’t booted, it was knocked down to keep from going into outfield.
In the fifth. leadoff batter got on base on a ball hit right at shortstop that was booted. Next batter tried to lay down a bunt. Dylan came off mound and dived to try and catch the ball in the air. Ball hit the ground and scooted off glove and there was no play at first. That is a basehit, not an error. Ball wasn’t booted, just couldn’t come up with it on a tough play.
Dylan was outstanding on the mound. 14 strikeouts in 7 innings of work. He also had a big night at the plate with 3 hits in 5 at bats, getting on once on an error. The only time he didn’t reach base was in the third when he came up with two outs and the bases loaded. He hit a wicked line drive right at the second baseman.
In my opinion, East is definitely the better team. More hitting and outstanding pitching. But that’s why they play the game. Last night they just couldn’t come up with the timely hit (left bases loaded three times and a total of 14 runners left on base). Ragsdale got good pitching last night and the one timely hit in the game to pull out the win.