GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – The Bluefield Ridge Runners held off a late charge by the Greeneville Flyboys to win on Wednesday night, 6-4, to remain three games back of the Burlington Sock Puppets for the final playoff spot with five games remaining in the regular season.
The Ridge Runners (20-19) pounded 14 hits (13 singles) and had three two-run frames to beat the Flyboys (19-22).
Bluefield got two runs in the third inning on a groundball hit by All-Star Tommy Harrison. With the bases loaded and one out, Harrison hit a groundball to shortstop that could have turned into a double play. Jack Mosh’s return throw to first pulled Nick Barone off the bag and allowed the runner from second to score.
The Ridge Runners added two more in the fifth inning with RBI singles from Kaikea Harrison and Brody Briggs to make it 4-0. They also chased Flyboy’s starter Ethan Phillips (1-3) out of the game. In his final start for Greeneville, Phillips pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowed eight hits, four earned runs and four walks. He struck out three to increase his season total to 43, which is the second most in the league.
The Flyboy’s bats got hot in the fifth inning when Aden Hill, Tyler Cerny and Mosh all collected RBI hits to cut the deficit to one.
Aedan Anderson hit a two out, two-run home run in the eighth inning off of Parker Shipley to make it 6-3 Bluefield. It was Anderson’s third home run of the season.
Greeneville made things interesting in the ninth when Jacob Vogel came on to try and pick up his fourth save. Vogel gave up a one out walk to pinch-hitter Johnny Pilla and then three straight singles to the top of the Flyboys order, who had the RBI hits earlier in the game. Vogel rallied to strikeout back-to-back men with the bases loaded in a two-run game to pick up the save and clinch the victory. Kris Sosnowski (2-2) earned the win.
Cerny’s two hits in the game extended his on-base streak to 25 games in a row. This mark ties teammate Joel Dragoo and Princeton WhistlePig Mike Koszewski for the longest streak in the league this season with both of their streaks no longer active. Cerny also now has a nine-game hitting streak and seven straight games with two or more hits.
The Flyboys will wrap up their season series with the Ridge Runners tomorrow night at 7 p.m. A link to watch the game can be found on the Flyboys website.
