River Riders see win streak snapped at JC
Published 9:30 pm Sunday, July 9, 2023
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
STAR CORRESPONDENT
JOHNSON CITY – On Friday night at Cardinal Park the Elizabethton River Riders fell to the Johnson City Doughboys 5-2 which ended a four game win streak.
Kyle Mueller (0-1, 5.03 ERA) got the start and he took the loss in this one, but won praise from manager Jeremy Owens who spoke of Mueller “Throwing strikes and pounding the zone. He has been pitching well in his last few games and gives us a chance to win.”
Mueller pitched three innings giving up two runs on two hits while striking out five.
The Riders (14-12) took an early lead in the top of the third when Peyton Basler drew a walk and went to second on a ground ball from Matty Wright. With two away, Brendan Jones RBI single brought Basler across for a 1-0 lead.
The Doughboys (18-8) answered with a pair of runs in the last of the third when Danny Infante singled with one out and Tommy Sheridan was hit by a pitch to put JC runners on first and second. A fielder’s choice grounder put runners on the corners and Cody Miller tied the score with an RBI single.
Miller stole second – his 14th stolen base of the season – and Cameron King scored on a passed ball by Carter Jagiela to give the Doughboys a 2-1 advantage.
JC chased Mueller in the fourth as Andrew Jergins came on in relief and with one out Christian Toledo and Jack Pokorak both drew walks. Amman Dewberry grounded out but both runners advanced on the play and Infante recorded his second hit of the game – a two run double – as JC now took a 4-1 lead.
Marcello Mastroianni came on to open the fifth and as was the case with Jergins, he walked Colby Backus and Logan Sutter with one out in the stanza. Toledo then singled to load the bases and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Pokorak made it a 5-1 contest.
With two out in the top of the seventh Wright reached on a bunt down the third base line and advanced to third on a throwing error from Sutter and scored on an RBI single from Trey Fenderson. In the eighth the Riders rally fell short when Skylar King and Ethan Sitzman walked and both advanced on a double steal.
For King it was his 14th stolen base of the season but first baseman Kade Huff struck out to end the threat. The Riders went out one, two, three in the ninth. Jones finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. For JC Infante had two hits and two RBI and Hayden Cooper pitched six innings giving up one run on four hits with six strikeouts.
Johnson City 5-2
River Riders 001 000 100 – 2 6 1
Doughboys 002 210 00x – 5 5 1
W – Cooper (3-1, 2.77) L – Mueller (0-1, 5.03)
