The Hargrave Varsity Baseball team got off to an impressive start to the season using good pitching and timely hitting to beat Chatham at their place 8-3 Tuesday evening. For this being game one against a scrappy Chatham team and for us to have had limited field time because of weather, and having to battle frigid temperatures our guys played extremely well.
Cadet Brad Markiewicz started on the mound for the Tigers, setting the tempo early going three strong innings only allowing one hit and giving up one walk. Cadets Logan Barker and Nick Paul followed Markiewicz for the next four innings, both looking extremely strong, only giving up three hits and allowing one walk.
The Tigers started somewhat slow before getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning with Cadet Zach Ruffin breaking the frame open with a leadoff double. Cadet Keegan Ferer did his job moving Ruffin to third with a ground out, and with two outs Cadet Darryl Smith came out blazing with a two out single giving the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. From that point on Hargrave never looked back adding three runs in the top half of the 6th inning from a Barker single plating two runs and a sac fly by Cadet Braden Barnett putting Hargrave up by a score of 4-1. Hargrave continued its hitting attack in the 7th, with Smith adding to his totals, hitting a three run home run. Cadet Matt Harris followed with a hit by pitch and a stolen base to set up an rbi single by Paul. Chatham got one hit in the bottom half of the seventh but our pitching held strong and shut the door giving Hargrave it’s first win of the season.
We had contributions from a lot of different guys, with our pitching being a strong point. Leading the attack offensively for your Tigers was Cadet Smith who was just on his second day as a Tiger going 2-4 with a home run, two runs scored and four rbi’s. Cadet Barker went 1-3 with a pair of RBI’s, and Cadet Harris was 0-1, with three walks, two stolen bases and two runs scored.
The Tigers return to action against Benedictine Friday in Richmond at 4:30. Please congratulate the guys if you see them on a great win.
