A two-out single by James Carlin in the top of the seventh pushed the Catawba Ridge Copperheads baseball team to a series clinching win over the Nation Ford Falcons.
Catawba Ridge won 4-2 over Nation Ford to improve to 10-6-1 on the season and 7-4 in Region 3-5A. Nation Ford fell to 8-8 overall and 5-6 in the region. Game three between the two teams is schedule for Thursday, April 10 at Catawba Ridge after being moved up a day due to projected rain in the forecast on Friday, April 11.
After falling 5-0 in game one, Nation Ford made sure to start strong in game two. The Falcons scored first in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by starting pitcher Cooper Mitchell scoring Alex Smith, who led the bottom of the inning off with a single.
The game turned into a pitcher’s duel between Mitchell and Bryce Meil. Both gave up the occasional hit, but managed to keep anyone from scoring.
Catawba Ridge’s Caden Glauber got both hits for the Copperheads through the first three innings.
Then in the fourth inning, Catawba Ridge broke through to take the lead. Ashton Mayo started the inning off with a walk and Jack Shelnutt doubled pushing Mayo to third. Tyler Causey knocked in Mayo on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1. Ian Babcock singled in Shelnutt to give Catawba Ridge the 2-1 lead.
In the sixth inning, Catawba Ridge again threatened in the inning, but didn’t score. Shelnutt singled to open the top of the inning and Babcock walked to before the Copperheads left them stranded on the corners.
In the top of the sixth inning, Mitchell was replaced with Carter Powell on the mound. Mitchell went five and a third innings allowing two runs on six hits, while walking three and striking out five.
Then in the bottom of the sixth, Nation Ford was able to tie the game. Ben Chuttey singled to get things started for the Falcons, before Lawson Smith doubled him home to tie the game.
Catawba Ridge went to their bullpen as well in the sixth as Meil was pulled after five and a third innings allowing two runs on six hits, while walking two and striking out three. He was replaced with Britton Nash.
The Copperheads started the top of the seventh with back-to-bac singles from Glauber and Meil with no outs. Nation Ford was able to get two outs before Shelnutt walked to load the bases.
Chuttey led Nation Ford at the plate going 2-3 in the game, while Catawba Ridge had nine hits in the game with Glauber going 3-4 at the plate. Meil and Shelnutt each had two hits as well for the Copperheads.
April 9 Roundup
The Fort Mill boys’ tennis team made short work of Northwestern with a 6-0 win. Winning for Fort Mill was Jack Childs 6-0, 6-1; Arnav Meshram 6-0, 6-0; Patrick Wright 6-0, 6-0; Oliver Johnson 6-0, 6-0; Sawyer Bryan 6-0, 6-0 and in doubles Lucas Coelho and Liam Marriott 6-0, 6-0.
The Nation Ford boys’ tennis team beat Rock Hill 6-0. Winning for Nation Ford was Colt Mohler 6-2, 6-7,10-6; Davis Glasco 6-0, 6-2; Owen McCullough 6-3, 6-2; Zach Robinson 6-2, 6-2; Jacob Brancato 6-4, 6-2 and in doubles Shanmith Kamireddy and Jaideep Tatineni 6-3, 6-3.
The Catawba Ridge softball team defeated Northwestern 16-0 on the back of 16 hits from the Copperheads to improve to 18-0 overall and 8-0 in Region 3-5A.
The Nation Ford softball team won 7-0 over Lancaster in non-region action to improve to 11-6 overall on the season.
The Nation Ford boys’ soccer team beat Northwestern 6-0 to improve to 13-4 and 5-2 in Region 3-5A.
The Fort Mill softball team dropped to 3-9 on the season with an 8-1 loss to Cuthbertson in non-region action.
The Fort Mill girls’ lacrosse team lost to Charlotte Catholic 20-8 to drop to 4-7 on the season.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
