Betsy wins slugfest over River Turtles
Published 10:48 am Monday, June 19, 2023
- Photo Contributed by Boyd Sports
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STAR CORRESPONDENT
Pulaski pitchers handed out 10 walks and the Elizabethton River Riders smacked 13 hits in a 16-8 win on Saturday night at Northeast Community Credit Union ballpark. The Riders (6-5) scored five first inning runs against River Turtles starter Logan Bogue who did not make it out of the frame.
Matty Wright crushed a home run to right field to open the inning and Bogue walked three batters in the frame. Brendan Jones and Peyton Basler had RBI’s and two runs came across on wild pitches as the Riders opened a 5-0 lead.
That lead extended to 11-1 after two innings as Elizabethton stung two more Pulaski relievers for six runs as the Riders collected three more walks, a hit batter, and a grand slam off the bat of Basler and Trey Fenderson had a run scoring double.
Basler had a five RBI night and righthander Turner Swistak (0-0, 2.92 ERA) pitched four and one third innings giving up two runs on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
“I wanted to have a solid first inning since my last two weren’t so great,” Swistak said. “I wanted to attack with fastballs. I was laying sliders and curveballs for strikes and got a couple backward K’s on both of them.”
Staked to a big lead Swistak cruised through the top of the fifth until he plunked Reece Moore and with one out surrendered a single to Christopher Hurd to put Pulaski runners on first and second and gave way to Pablo Torres.
Torres allowed a run scoring hit to Sam White as Pulaski pushed three runs across to make it an 11-4 contest. The Riders answered with two runs in the last of the fifth on a double by DJ Dillehay and an RBI single from Brendan Jones for a 13-4 Riders lead.
“This was a fun one,” Basler said. “The slam was great and it launched us on a big lead and we just kept adding on to it. We have a great group of guys here and some really good pitchers who really attack the zone and it keeps you on your feet defensively.”
Carter Jagiela had an RBI hit in the sixth innings and Elizabethton added two more runs in the seventh on a two RBI, bases loaded single from Matty Wright. In the top of the ninth Pulaski plated four runs against closer John Harrick to make it a 16-8 final.
River Riders 16-8
Pulaski 010 030 004 – 8 10 3
River Riders 560 021 20x – 16 13 1
W – Swistak L – Bogue
HR – Basler (2).
