It was never easy, but the Elizabethton River Riders managed to knock off the Bristol State Liners, 8-8, in extra-innings Friday night.
The River Riders used two big innings, which included a three-run first and a five-run sixth inning, to power their offense. On the contrary, Bristol scored two in the first, one in the third, three in the fifth and two in the six to put the score at 8-8 after six innings. No runs were scored in the final third of the game, which led to both sides having their first extra-inning game of the year. In the new extra-innings format, the team on offense gets a runner on first and nobody out, and if they score they win, if they do not score the defense wins.
Things got started in the first, with the bases loaded and two away Alex McCoy (UMES) hit a long triple off the right-center field wall to empty the bases. After Bristol came back with two runs in the first and one in the third, Braxton Church of the State Liners hit a three-run home run to right field to give Bristol their first lead of the night at 6-3.
Things changed in the sixth, after a McCoy single, Zach Freeman (USF) and Marcus Sanders (Phoenix College) walked, which was followed by a walk to Ty Peters (Liberty) to bring in a run. After a fielder’s choice, Pepe Soto (Rogers State) hit a grounder through the left side to plate Sanders and make it a one-run ball game. Owen Carapellotti came up with a gigantic hit once again, as he smoked a grounder into right field, scoring both Peters and Jones and making it a 7-6 game. Morgan Colopy (Indiana) then got his first RBI with a sacrifice fly to score Pepe Soto and the River Riders led 8-6 after five and a half innings.
Following two runs in the bottom of the sixth, Collin Rothermel (Kansas State) came on with two outs and escaped a jam with runners on base to preserve the score. Rothermel threw 2.1 innings of shutout baseball as the score remained tied heading into the ninth when Maddox Pennington (Wabash College) entered for his first Elizabethton appearance and was successful, as he recorded three outs on just four pitches.
Bristol elected to be on offense for the tiebreaker in extra innings, and they decided to bunt the first pitch from Pennington and moved the runner over to second base with one out. Elizabethton decided to walk Eric Erato and set up the double play. Pennington then fired a pitch to cleanup hitter Will Spears who grounded it to shortstop Ty Peters who threw it to Soto and then on to McCoy for the game-ending double play.
Elizabethton and Bristol both left nine and 11 on base, respectfully. Elizabethton benefitted from two bases-loaded double plays and escaped jams several times.
Bristol and Elizabethton finish up their two-game set on Saturday at 7 p.m. before an off-day on Sunday. Make sure to tune in live at 6:45 at https://www.appyleague.com/elizabethton/audio for pregame with Andrew and Reese.
