WINNSBORO – With baseball’s opening day looming this week, Richard Winn hosted Fairfield Central and Ridge View for a three-team preseason tournament last week.
Fairfield Central faced off with Ridge View on Monday, and Richard Winn followed with a game against Ridge View on Tuesday. Wednesday’s cross-town matchup between the Griffins and Eagles was cancelled because of weather conditions.
Fairfield Central 3, Ridge View 2
Monday’s game against Ridge View went down to the last pitch for Fairfield, literally.
Both teams remained scoreless through four innings. Ridge View notched two runs in the top of the fifth. Three singles from Blazer bats loaded the bases with no outs. Griffin pitcher Tyon Belton, in to relieve starter Graeme Douglas, struck out the next batter, but a fielder’s choice put Ridge View up 2-0 over Fairfield before a pop out to second ended the inning.
Bats went silent again until the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Kaden Diggs got on and advanced to second by an error from the Ridge View shortshop. With two outs, Blake Gambrell singled to first to score Diggs and narrow Ridge View’s lead to one.
Despite getting a runner on in the top of the seventh, Belton struck out two to get out of the inning unscathed.
Down one with only one at-bat remaining, Fairfield rallied.
Landon Morgan led off with a single to right. B Trapp went in to run for Morgan and stole second. He advanced to third on an error. R Woodard laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Trapp and knot the game at two.
With only one out, Brenton Mack singled on a grounder to third. Mack stole second, then advanced to third on an error by the Ridge View catcher. Belton belted one to center to score Mack and end the game with a 3-2 walk-off single.
Douglas took the mound for Fairfield to start the game. He threw three innings and allowed three hits and no runs. He struck out six and walked four.
Belton threw for four innings and got the win. He struck out four, walked none, allowed six hits and two runs.
RVHS – 0-0-0-0-2-0-0 – 2, 9, 4
FCHS – 0-0-0-0-0-1-2 – 3, 4, 0
WP: Belton
FC: Gambrell 1-3, RBI. Morgan 1-2. Mack 1-1. Belton 1-3, RBI.
Richard Winn 11, Ridge View 3
Richard Winn ended their 2023 baseball season on the highest of highs: a perfect 25-0 record and a SCISA 1A State Title.
With the void of six seniors who graduated following that championship win, the Eagles faced Ridge View last Tuesday with something to prove.
Ridge View took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second and extended it to 3-0 halfway through the third.
Thanks to Ridge View pitching struggles, four back-to-back walks (and an Eagle runner caught stealing third) loaded the bases for the Eagles in the bottom of the third. Charlie Bonds singled to left to score two and put runners on first and second. Another walk loaded the bases, but a pop fly to right ended the inning with the Eagles down 3-2.
While Richard Winn would tighten up in the field to hold the Blazers scoreless for the remainder of the game, the loosened up at the plate and managed nine more runs to claim an 11-3 win.
Bonds, a junior, went 2-3 with a triple and three RBIs. Stone Gill went 2-3 with an RBI. Anthony Armstrong, Johnathan Bonds, Owen Martin and Turner Burchell all doubled on the day.
Armstrong threw a complete game. He allowed three runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out seven.
RVHS – 0-1-2-0-0-0-0 – 3, 6, 1
RWA – 0-0-2-0-6-2-1 – 11, 12, 2
WP: Armstrong
RWA: M Stuck 1-3, (2)RBI. B Nicholson 1-4, (2)RBI. A Armstrong 2-5. C Bonds 2-3, (3)RBI. E Steward 1-2, RBI. O Martin 1-4. J Bonds 1-1, RBI. S Gill 2-3, RBI. T Burchell 1-2, RBI.
Griffins, Eagles host for opening day
Fairfield Central and Richard Winn both opened regular season play on Tuesday. The Griffins hosted Ridge View, and a Belton single plated the winning run again as Fairfield took down the Blazers 3-2. The Eagles hosted Richland Northeast on Tuesday and won 4-3 wih a walk-off two-run homer from Charlie Bonds.
Fairfield will travel to Ridge View on Thursday and host Great Falls on Friday at 7 p.m.
Richard Winn will host Laurens Academy for their first region game of the year on Friday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
