Riverheads picked up its second win in as many days with a 12-2 rout over arch-rival Buffalo Gap today. Unlike Monday's 6-1 win over Stonewall, the Big Red jumped on the Bison right away with three runs in each of the first two innings to essentially settle the issue after just two frames. They then added a pair of runs in the fifth and reached "slaughter rule" status with a four-run 6th inning. In fact, those four runs were scored in such quick succession that the game ended almost before fans realized that it was in fact over.
The key to the victory was aggressiveness on the base paths. I have not seen a box score but I would be surprised if the Gladiators had more than 6-8 hits. The Bison helped them along with walks, errors, and especially hit batters. In fact, one particular Riverheads batter was hit by pitch in his first three plate appearances by two different Bison hurlers, which understandably did not set well with the Gladiator faithful.
That kind of wildness led to the Gap trying four different pitchers but nobody had any real effectiveness. On the other hand, RHS got a solid 83-pitch outing from Brody Phillips that lasted into the Bison half of the sixth. Freshman Jackson Berkstresser then came on to finish the job.
However, the real key to the RHS win was the issue of what they did once they got on base. Again I have not seen any statistics, but I would guess they stole between 8 and 10 bases. In fact on two separate occasions, they executed a double steal to advance runners to second and third.
Even with all of that success, the Big Red still left quite a number of guys on base, including the fifth inning when Phillips hit one into shallow right field that showed every sign of finding a gap. But the Bison second-baseman raced back and made a nice over-the-shoulder grab to rob him. The bases were loaded at the time so a hit would have scored one or two and probably ended the game an inning earlier than it did.
With the win, RHS is now 4-0 with a Thursday trip to Wilson next on the agenda. It is not too early in the season to label that one as a "big one."
In softball action next door, the Lady Gladiators took an early 3-0 lead but the Bison rallied late and snatched a 5-3 win.
The key to the victory was aggressiveness on the base paths. I have not seen a box score but I would be surprised if the Gladiators had more than 6-8 hits. The Bison helped them along with walks, errors, and especially hit batters. In fact, one particular Riverheads batter was hit by pitch in his first three plate appearances by two different Bison hurlers, which understandably did not set well with the Gladiator faithful.
That kind of wildness led to the Gap trying four different pitchers but nobody had any real effectiveness. On the other hand, RHS got a solid 83-pitch outing from Brody Phillips that lasted into the Bison half of the sixth. Freshman Jackson Berkstresser then came on to finish the job.
However, the real key to the RHS win was the issue of what they did once they got on base. Again I have not seen any statistics, but I would guess they stole between 8 and 10 bases. In fact on two separate occasions, they executed a double steal to advance runners to second and third.
Even with all of that success, the Big Red still left quite a number of guys on base, including the fifth inning when Phillips hit one into shallow right field that showed every sign of finding a gap. But the Bison second-baseman raced back and made a nice over-the-shoulder grab to rob him. The bases were loaded at the time so a hit would have scored one or two and probably ended the game an inning earlier than it did.
With the win, RHS is now 4-0 with a Thursday trip to Wilson next on the agenda. It is not too early in the season to label that one as a "big one."
In softball action next door, the Lady Gladiators took an early 3-0 lead but the Bison rallied late and snatched a 5-3 win.