Woodland edged late by Kell; Cass falls to River Ridge
KELL 1, WOODLAND 0
The visiting Kell Longhorns manufactured a run in the top of the seventh innings Wednesday night, to defeat Woodland, 1-0.
Luke Hughes was hit by a pitch to start the seventh inning. He then stole second and scored on an RBI single to left field by Anthony Porter.
Kell pitcher, Chris Lucero, grabbed the pitching win with a complete-game shutout. He scattered three hits with no walks and struck out ten.
Trent Harrison was the hard-luck, losing pitcher for the Wildcats. Harrison toss six innings of shutout baseball before yielding the deciding run in the seventh. He scattered four hits and struck out six.
Grant Robinson went 2-for-3 for Woodland. Harrison had the only other hit for the Wildcats.
Kell improved its season mark to 12-5. The Longhorns are 9-3 in 7-AAAAA-B.
Woodland (2-14, 1-11 in 7-AAAAA-A) has a three-game, sub-region series next week with county-rival Cass. The games are at Cass on Monday and Friday (April 4 and 8). The Wildcats will host Wednesday’s game (April 6). All three games are scheduled for 5:55pm starts.
RIVER RIDGE 11, CASS 5
River Ridge won the middle game of a three-game, sub-region series Wednesday night at Cass, 11-5. The Knights also won Monday night 8-0, so the Colonels will try to avoid the sweep Friday, back at River Ridge in Woodstock.
The Knights scored ten runs in the third and fourth innings combined Wednesday to take control.
River Ridge took their initial lead in the top of the first on a single by Connor Pavolony and an RBI double by Luke Berryhill to go up, 1-0.
The Knights then scored six times in the third to go up 7-0 on three hits, three walks, a hit batsman, and two infield errors.
The Colonels got in the board in the bottom of the third when Cody Johnson reached on an error and eventually scored on a single by Steven Spell.
Four more River Ridge runs in the next inning gave the Knights an 11-1 lead. Four singles, a double, and one hit batsman accounted for the fourth inning runs.
Cass scored two runs in the fifth and two more in the six to narrow the margin to the 11-5 final, but could get no closer.
Nathan Smith had a two-run double for the Colonels in the fifth inning. Brett Gaddy and Tyler Hendon had RBI hits in the sixth.
Branson Bowling had a four-hit game for River Ridge with 2 RBI. Nick Blubaugh, who also garnered the pitching win, drove in three runs on a pair of hits.
Blubaugh (4 IP, 1R, 0ER, 3H, 0BB, 4K) started. Chandler Hampton (2 IP, 4ER, 6H, 0BB) and Fitzgerald (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 0BB) worked the final three frames.
Evan Hinton (3.1 IP, 10R, 8ER, 8H, 3BB, 2K) took the pitching loss for the Colonels. Austin Pruett (1.2 IP, 1ER, 3H, 1BB), Johnson (1 IP, 0R, 1H, 2K), and Spell (1 IP, 0R, 1H) each pitched in the contest.
Tyler Hendon, Spell, and Jordan Reed had two hits each for Cass. Hendon, Spell, Gaddy, and Smith (2) accounted for the RBIs.
Bailey Campbell, Gaddy, and Smith each contributed one hit for the Colonels.
River Ridge improved to 10-6 overall and 7-4 in sub-region play.
Cass (4-12, 3-8 in 7-AAAAA-A) travels to River Ridge on Friday for a 5:55pm start.
