Bearded and burly, River City Skippers new head coach Noah Scott strikes an imposing presence. You probably wouldn’t want to see him angry.
But Sunday night at Holmes Field there was very little to get the field general upset. The hometown baseball club scored five runs in the first inning, got strong performances from two pitchers, and coasted to a 9-0 victory over the Wilson Bruins.
“I’ve only been with these guys for about four days,” said Scott. “A couple of practices, an intra-squad game Saturday, and then our first full game tonight. It is early, but it looks like we have a team with some good balance. We have guys that make solid contact and can hit for average, and some hitters with pop. Our starting pitcher was throwing strikes with good movement, and we played solid defense behind him.”
Indeed, Skippers righthander Jaden Greenidge was completely dominant in his five full innings of work. He allowed only one harmless single while striking out seven. He walked one and hit a batter. The junior at Lincoln University had a live fastball and a sharp breaking curve.
After striking out the side to open the game, Greenidge got all the support he needed in the home half of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Ivan Santos singled sharply to centerfield. After a force-out at second base, Anders Brown walked. Kristian Barcroft grounded hard to first but the throw to second sailed into left field to score the first run.
Doyle McNew followed with a line single to right to produce the second run, and then Carter Stevenson, of East Carolina University, doubled to the fence in left field to bring home the third score. Rowan Hudson, the Skipper second baseman, delivered a sacrifice fly for the fourth run, and a final tally would come home on a wild pitch as River City batted around.
The Skippers stranded two runners in the second inning as Wilson right fielder Apollos Harrell made a diving two-out catch down the line to rob McNew. However, the home team added to their lead in the third inning. Stevenson and Hudson both walked. Catcher Noah Simpson lined a clean single to center scoring Stevenson, with Hudson moving to third base. Cade Irwin would bring him home with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
With a comfortable lead, Greenidge was rolling along. He struck out two Bruins on called strikes in the fourth as his teammates added another run in the bottom half of the inning. The big lefty swinging McNew, a senior at Maryland Eastern Shore, doubled deep to right to bring home Barcroft.
River City would add a final run in the fifth inning on another extra base hit. Jared Wasserman would triple to the right field corner to send home Santos.
Aiden Lewis replaced Greenidge on the mound in the sixth inning. The lefty, with a vocal following in the stands, retired the Bruins in order on two fly balls and a swinging strike three. Despite allowing two baserunners in the seventh, he struck out the side to preserve the shutout. The game was called at that point with River City holding an insurmountable lead.
The Skippers rapped out 12 base hits in the victory while going down on strikes only twice. Their next game at home will be against Old North State League opponent the Jacksonville Ospreys on Thursday at 7 p.m.
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