3/31/17
River Ridge 9, Eatonville 1
(Lacey WA) On a warm, sunny afternoon (finally!!) it was a great day to play baseball and the River Ridge Hawks were not in the mood to be congenial hosts. The Eatonville Cruisers whose roster featured all seniors and 1 freshman along with not 1, not 2 but 3 sets of twins, 2 sets of identical and 1 fraternal looked like they were ready to give the Hawks a run. By the way, Colin and Andrew Streich, Jacob and Jared Henricksen are the identical sets while Aj and Tj Goetz are fraternal.
As the game got underway, Sophomore Jeter Larson took the hill and got lead-off hitter Justin Brandt to fly out to his brother Rylee Larson in left field. Colin Streich then doubled and would score on a Joel Rodriguez sacrifice fly and the Cruisers would have a 1-0 lead.
It did not take the Hawks long to strike back as Blake Anderson led off with a double, Addison Nash then was hit by a pitch. Zach Carter then knocked in the tying run with a hit followed by a walk to Brayden Anderson. Colin Streich then got a strike out for the 2nd out in the inning and was 1 out from escaping a big time jam. Streich then hit Taylor Harp for the 2nd HBP of the inning giving Harp an RBI and the Hawks a 2-1 lead. Streich then walked Seyhun Park for another run and that would be it for Streich and he traded places with centerfielder Justin Brandt. Brandt gave up a base hit to Matthew Morgan knocking in the 4th run of the inning and the Hawks would take that lead into the 2nd inning.
Addison Nash led off the 2nd and again was hit by a pitch and made his way to 1st and eventually worked his way to 3rd when Brayden Anderson came through with a 2-out single and it was 5-1 after 2. In the 3rd Taylor Harp led off with a single followed by a base hit from Park. Morgan sac bunted them over to 2nd and 3rd. Blake Anderson then grounded one and the throw home to Rodriguez to try and get Harp may have been in time but Rodriguez never tried to put the tag down instead had his foot on the plate thinking the bases were full and it was a force. Park then got hung up between 2nd and 3rd and was thrown out at 3rd. Nash then grounded one to 2nd but an error put him on 1st while Blake Anderson went to 3rd. Ben Maratita then stepped up and blistered a high long shot over the left field fence for a 3-run dinger making it 9-1. The homerun also earned our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
Jeter Larson then buckled down and kept the Cruisers scoreless for the final 4 innings to post the 9-1 league win. River Ridge improved to 4-0 in league play and 6-2 overall while Eatonville fell to 0-2 and 4-3. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to RR’s Jeter Larson and to Eatonville’s Joel Rodriguez.
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