Riders win streak snapped in loss to Princeton
Published 11:26 am Thursday, June 22, 2023
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STAR CORRESPONDENT
Princeton scored five runs in the fifth inning to take an 8-5 lead and finished with a 12-7 win over Elizabethton on Wednesday night at Northeast Community Credit Union ballpark.
Kyle Mueller got the start in a game delayed by power outage at the park and he pitched four innings giving up three runs (one earned) on five hits walking three and striking out three. The Whistlepigs (6-8) scored two runs in the top of the first with Jesse Robinson’s double plating one run and Cam Careswell hit a sacrifice fly for the second run.
The Riders (8-6) answered with a run on singles from Keaton Cottam and Trey Fenderson’s RBI hit for a 2-1 contest. With Princeton leading 3-2 in the last of the fourth Elizabethton scored three runs to take a 5-3 advantage.
D.J. Dillehay smashed a solo home run in the third to make it a 3-2 game. For Dillehay it was his second home run of the season and his second of the series.
In the frame Peyton Basler led off with a walk and went to third on a double by Brendan Jones.
Basler scored on a single from Cottam and Jones scored on the back end of a double steal for a 4-3 Riders lead and Fenderson drove in his second run of the game with a single.
The see-saw scoring continued in the top of the fifth when Andrew Jurgins came on in relief of Mueller and immediately ran into trouble when he walked the first two hitters he faced and a passed ball allowed one run to come across.
Ellis Garcia drove in a run with a single and Jurgins walked the next three hitters to force in a run and Andres DeLeon replaced Jurgins with the Riders now trailing 6-5. A second passed by Cottam allowed another run to cross the dish and the Whistlepigs rally ended with a walk and a wild pitch.
Skylar King singled in the seventh and scored on a ground ball from Hayden Moore and Baslar singled and scored on an RBI hit from Jones to make it an 8-7 contest. The remaining scoring saw Princeton plate three runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth.
For Elizabethton, Jones finished 3-for-4 with one RBI while Cottam was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Fenderson drove in two runs with a 2-for-5 night. Jurgins (0-1) took the loss giving up five runs (four earned) on one hit but he walked five in one third of an inning. Overall the Riders pitchers gave up 13 walks while striking out 10.
Defensively the Riders played a sloppy game with four errors and two wild pitches and two passed balls.
Princeton 12-7
Princeton 201 050 031 – 12 10 0
River Riders 101 300 200 – 7 11 4
W – Tyler Hampu (1-1) L – Jurgins (0-1)
HR – Dillehay (2)
