Riverheads 8 Amelia 3

[rhsgrad]

Riverheads beat Amelia 8-3 In Region B D-1 Quarters.

Amelia scored 1 in the first and then were held in check util the 5th inning when they pushed across 2 more runs.

Riverheads scored 3 in the top of the 3rd and never reliquished the lead after that. Logan Wolfe hit a single, Kyle Bishop reched on an error and then Cody Swisher belted a lng home run to put the Gladiators up 3-1. We tacked on 2 more in the 4th. Zach Clymore hit a sinlgle then Logan Wolfe hit a double to score Clymore then came home on a passed ball after a fielders choice moved him to 3rd. Then in the 6th Clymore walked Wilson hit a double and Kyle Bishop hit atriple scoring those 2 runs and came home on a Swisher sinlge for the final score.

Luray beat Page 5-3 I think and East Rock won. East Rock will host Riverheads Wednesday at 6:30 ang Luray will travel to William Campbell.

 

[longtimerhsfan]

To add to RHS grad's description, the Big Red needed a couple of innings to get warmed up, but once Swisher uncorked that big homer, the writing was pretty much on the wall for the Raiders. They pitched what we would assume was their ace the entire game and he had his moments, but the Gladiators scattered just enough hits to score when they needed to. Amelia was its own worst enemy at times as they probably had half a dozen occasions in which they either booted a routine ground ball or misjudged a fly. Not all of those went into the record book as errors, I don't imagine, but they were just not all that sharp in the field.

For the Gladiators Kyle Bishop started and earned the win as he only gave up one run through four innings of work. The Raiders got their other two runs early in the fifth when Ethan Whitehead came in, but after needing to face a few batters to get the jitters out, he did a nice job also.

There were two unusual plays in the game, one that was just plain funny and the other that was just a call you don't see all that often. The funny one came when Amelia was batting somewhere in the middle of the game. The pitch count clearly went four balls and no strikes and everybody in the stadium knew it. It was on the scoreboard, and it was obvious if you were paying attention. But the only person that DIDN'T seem to realize it was the behind-the-plate umpire!

Everybody waited for him to give the signal but he just stood there not saying or doing anything. After an awkward time of everyone standing around waiting for him to do something, he went out and conferred with his two buddies, I guess they straightened him out, and he finally gave the signal for the batter to take first, which he had already done by that time anyway.

As for the unusual play, Amelia had a guy on first and the next one hit a grounder to the RHS shortstop. It had all the makings of a routine double play. The shortstop (Kyle Wilson) flipped it to Zach Roberts covering second for one out, but the runner charged into him standing up so that he couldn't attempt a relay throw to first. The base umpire who was right on top of it ruled interference and called the batter out as well, so the Gladiators got their double play anyway.

People around me said it was the right call because he didn't attempt to slide, but I had just never seen it before. Needless to say, it didn't set well with the home folks, but the score was already 8-3 by that time so it had little impact.

I see from the other scores that the Big Red now travels to district rival East Rockingham for a semi-final game on Wednesday. A state berth will be on the line in that one. If the Big Red could manage a win there, they would be pulling for Luray to win at WC, which would mean RHS would host the regional title game as the higher seed. But that is of course cart before horse.

Let's hope for nice weather and a big turnout at Wednesday's games.