Russellville drops two straight at TD Classic
By Staff
Mike Self, Franklin County Times
RUSSELLVILLE – Central used timely hitting and a solid outing on the mound by Chase Atkinson on Friday to hand Russellville its second straight loss, beating the Golden Tigers 7-1 in the TimesDaily Classic.
Russellville (17-5) blistered the Wildcats for a season-high 18 hits in a 13-5 win on Tuesday, but Atkinson befuddled the Golden Tigers all day with his slow curve.
Russellville finished with only five hits, three of them by Caleb Mitchell.
Central jumped out to an early lead as the first six batters reached base safely in the top of the first. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Trey Mitchell and Kevin Patrick made it 2-0, and Gary Green's RBI single chased starter Evan Fergerson.
Ryan Romans relieved and escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam without allowing another run.
Mitchell led off the bottom of the first with a hit, stole second and later scored on an error, but the Golden Tigers left two men on base. They stranded two more runners in the second and failed to score the rest of the day.
Romans held Central scoreless until the top of the fourth, when Drew Murphy's two-out, two-run single made it 5-1. The Wildcats struck again with clutch hitting in the fifth when Drew Humphrey's two-run triple with two outs extended the lead to 7-1.
Torey Baird and John Batchelor each had one hit for Russellville.
In previous action:
University High (FL) 3 Russellville 2
Brad Tressler struck out 13 batters and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth inning on Thursday as the Cougars handed Russellville its fourth loss of the season.
"We could go all the way through the [Class] 5A playoffs and not see a team as good as them until the state finals," RHS coach David Ward said. "From top to bottom, they were as good as we'll see. Their pitcher was the real deal. He was throwing high-80s all game, and he even touched 90 on the gun once. We didn't do much offensively, but he had a lot to do with that."
The Golden Tigers, who pounded out 31 hits in two games on Monday and Tuesday, managed just three off Tressler.
Preston Beasley matched Tressler with a three-hitter for Russellville, but a pair of hit batsmen in the top of the third led to Alex Freiderich's two-run single that gave University a 2-1 lead.
The Cougars pushed across an insurance run in the top of the sixth to make it 3-1, and that lead seemed insurmountable given the way Tressler was dealing.
After allowing a solo homer to Seth Fergerson in the bottom of the second, the hard-throwing lefthander settled into a groove. He struck out seven consecutive batters following Fergerson's blast and did not allow another hit until Caleb Mitchell beat out an infield single in the bottom of the sixth to put runners at first and second with no outs.
After a groundout by Jake Ward, Patrick Hines was tagged out at home plate trying to score on a grounder by Corey Flanagan.
Cory Trapp came through with a two-out RBI single to make it 3-2, and both runners moved up on the throw home. The Cougars elected to intentionally walk Seth Fergerson to load the bases, and Tressler struck out Evan Fergerson on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
Tressler pitched around a leadoff walk in the seventh to finish off the win.
Fergerson staked Russellville to a 1-0 lead in the second when he blasted a first-pitch changeup from Tressler over the batting cages beyond the left field fence for his sixth home run of the season.
Beasley took the hard-luck loss, allowing three earned runs on three hits in a complete game. He struck out six.
