3/17/16
Black Hills 11, River Ridge 6
(Tumwater, WA) The Black Hills Wolves opened their season the day before with a 4-2 loss to Timberline so Head Coach Todd Venable was stressing to jump on the Hawks early and boy did they listen. In the 1st inning Connor Furu led off with a single, moved over on a wild pitch, took 3rd on a Nate Hutson sac bunt and Tate Determan would single him home for a 1-0 lead. The Wolves would add another run in their half of the 2nd on an error when Ethan Loveless tapped one in front of the plate and there was an over-throw to 1st that would score Cole Lester to make it 2-0 after 1.
Zach Carter would lead off with a single for River Ridge but with 1 out and Carter on 2nd Loveless would turn in what would be our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game when the leftfielder ran down a deep fly ball off the bat of Brayden Anderson and then threw the ball to Lester on 1st to get Carter as he was off with the pitch on a hit and run and the double play would end the inning.
The Hawks would get on the board in the top of 3 when with 2 outs Blake Anderson would single, steal 2nd and then Mac Armstrong would help his own cause belting an RBI double to make it 2-1 going into the bottom of 3.
That’s where Armstrong would run into big time trouble as the Wolves would send 10 batters to the plate and score 6 runs. Determan would get it started with a 1-out bunt single, he would then steal 2nd. Cole Lester would walk and then a double steal would move them over to 2nd and 3rd and Determan’s 3rd steal in the game. Loveless would blast a shot deep to center for a 2RBI stand-up double. Nate Brosio would get hit by a pitch followed by a single RBI from Nik Quartano. Tyler Warren would then fly out to left but picked up an RBI on the sacrifice. Spencer Richmond would single and Furu would end the scoering unloading deep into the right-center gap for a 2 RBI double and it was 8-1 Wolves.
The Wolves would add 2 more in the bottom of 4 as Determan slapped his 3rd base hit of the game and stole his 4th base. Cole Lester hammered the 3rd double of the game for the Wolves scoring Determan. Lester would later score on an RBI single from Tanner Ivie and it was 10-1.
Determan would continue his mastery over the Hawks on the hill through the 5th inning and finish giving up just 1 run while striking out 7. River Ridge would have better luck against both Wolves relievers Tyler Warren and Zach James scoring 5 runs in the top of the 6th and 7th innings but far short of what was needed to make up the big deficit from early in the game.
Mac Armstrong and Taylor Harp would both single in the 6th and come around to score on an RBI single from Carter and Addison Nash. Carter would score on an RBI single from Matthew Morgan. The Hawks got their final 2 in the 7th with RBI hits from Carter who went 4-4 with 2 RBI and Brayden Anderson.
The Wolves evened their record at 1-1 while it was the Hawks opener and are 0-1. Out Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group Players of the Game went to Tate Determan for Black Hills and Zach Carter for River Ridge.
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