Baseball and softball roundup for Richlands for week of April 23

By DAVE COX/Staff
BLUEFIELD- Richlands continued its undefeated tear through the 35th annual Allen B. Coppinger Invitational baseball tournament last Thursday with an 8-2 thrashing of Bluefield in pool play. The victory put the Tornado in the championship game last Saturday opposite Tazewell, a winner over Oak Hill (WVa.) last Thursday at Hunnicutt Field in Princeton. The Bulldogs wrapped up pool play in the tournament also unbeaten at 3-0.
Ethain Keene (1-0) took the mound for the Bluefield game and responded with a 1-hitter through four innings on the hill. He allowed the Beavers’ only two runs in the game, struck out nine batters and walked three. Taylor Sizemore did mop up duty for one inning, striking out one batter and walking one. Sizemore did not give up any hits or runs.
Hitting dropped down to nine safeties for Richlands (8-0, 3-0 Southwest District), but that was plenty enough to handle the Beavers behind the fine pitching performances of Keene and Sizemore.
Keene aided his cause with two hits, including a triple. He knocked in a pair of runs and also scored twice. Eric Stiltner had a triple, Christian Hearl a double and five other RHS players pitched in with singles. They were Jordan Barnett, Sizemore, Blayke Wilson, Erik Hess and Ben Mulkey. The Blues overcame three fielding errors while Bluefield made five mistakes.
The Blues jumped out to a 3-09 lead in the bottom of the first frame and added three more in the fifth and two in the sixth. Bluefield scored single tallies in the third and fourth innings.


By DAVE COX/Staff
PRINCETON- The scene of the 35th annual Allen B. Coppinger Invitational baseball tournament shifted to Hunnicutt Field in Princeton for the Richlands Blue Tornado squad as the Blues took on the Princeton Tigers in pool play on Tuesday, April 15 and their presence was quite “taxing” on the Tigers as they rolled up a convincing 8-2 victory to remain undefeated in the tournament and on the 2008 season.
Richlands (7-0, 3-0 Southwest District) scored its initial run in the second inning and led throughout the contest with Eric Stiltner (2-0) on the mound for four frames while Joel Elswick wrapped up things there the final three innings.
Stiltner gave up just two hits, allowed one run, struck out five batters and walked five. Elswick surrendered a run on four safeties. He fanned five and walked two.
The Blues’ offense was on fire for 11 hits, including a 4-for-4 performance by Jordan Barnett. He unloaded a 2-run home run to left in the fourth inning with Christian Hearl aboard. Hearl had banged a 2-RBI double just before Barnett’s yard shot. RHS finished the big inning with five runs that added to an already 3-1 edge in the game.
Other hits by the Tornado included two by Blayke Wilson and one each from Bradley Strong, Elswick, Ethain Keene and Taylor Sizemore.
Richlands head coach Brad Strong knew that his team was facing a very busy week with another pair of Coppinger games and a big tilt with SWD rival Tazewell awaiting, so he looked at some pitchers Tuesday who normally don’t see a lot of action. “We wanted to get our other pitchers involved this week,” Strong said. “We knew it’d be a long week. Eric came out and did a good job for us.” As far as the rest of his team’s performance, Strong said, “I think they stayed a little more focused about defense today.” Indeed, the Blues played error free ball while the Tigers stumped their toe three times on miscues.
Richlands moved back to Bowen Field for a Thursday encounter with the Bluefield Beavers.


By DAVE COX\Staff
The Richlands varsity softball team wrapped up a busy and undefeated week of action on the diamond last Friday with a 12-1 romp of non-district opponent Honaker in a game played at Williams Field in Richlands. The Lady Blues started the week with a non-district victory over Gate City and a sandwiched a big Southwest District win over arch rival Tazewell in before Friday’s meeting with the Lady Tigers. The two earlier games in the week were played on the road.
Evan Ferrell (2-0) picked up the pitching win over Honaker. She struck out nine batters and allowed only two hits in a complete game performance in the circle. Morgan Hill and Holly Bandy paced Richlands (9-1, 3-0 SWD) at the plate with two hits each, but Megan Robinson had perhaps the biggest hit of all with a 2-run inside-the-park home run in the third inning.
Richlands started the game with single runs in the first and second innings before Honaker posted a tally in the top of the third to make it a 2-1 contest. The Lady Blues put the game on ice in the bottom of the third with a 5-run frame. They added two more in the fourth and three in the fifth to finish out the day’s scoring. RHS finished with 12 hits and committed one error. Honaker suffered three fielding mistakes.


By DAVE COX/Staff
WARDELL- Richlands and Tazewell took a short break from the 35th annual Allen B. Coppinger Invitational baseball tournament long enough to take care of some other business last Friday! The two Southwest District arch rivals met for a district contest at the Southwest Virginia Community College field and both brought excellent records into the fray. Tazewell had lost just one game all season and had won three straight games in the Coppinger.
The Blues’ record was also sparkling with no losses on the season and a perfect 3-0 worksheet in the Coppinger. Did that bode for a close, down-to-the-wire encounter by the two teams Friday? Not really. Richlands (9-0, 4-0 SWD) blistered the Bulldogs 14-4 in a six inning mercy rule-shortened game that was not a pretty sight in the field for Tazewell (8-2, 4-1 SWD). The Bulldogs committed seven costly errors, six in one inning, and allowed RHS to score 12 of its runs after two outs were already in the books.
“Any coach would be really pleased if you score a bunch of runs like we did with two outs,” said Richlands head coach Brad Strong.
On the flip side of the coin, Tazewell boss Lou Peery was not at all pleased with his team’s boo-boos. “When you get two outs and you commit (six) errors, it’s pretty upsetting,” Peery said. “You can’t beat great teams and kick the ball around. As long as they keep putting the ball in play and we keep booting it, they’re going to win. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve got to correct that.”
Tazewell forged out to a 1-0 lead after its first at bats, but the Blues responded with two tallies in the bottom of the frame to move ahead for good at 2-1. After RHS hurler Jordan Barnett and his defense held Tazewell scoreless in the top of the second inning, things started to snowball on the visitors. THS starting pitcher Trey Lambert got two quick outs to start the bottom of the second, but a pair of errors were followed by a triple from Christian Hearl that yielded two runs. Another error plated a run and three more miscues on one play plated yet another Blues’ tally.
A nightmarish second frame for Tazewell was followed by an even bigger nightmare in the third. Again, two outs were followed by an error, then five straight Blues’ hits and that resulted in a 5-run Tornado inning and a commanding 11-1 lead for RHS.
The Bulldogs managed their other three runs of the game in the fifth inning. Richlands added one more run in the bottom of the fifth and its final two in the sixth on a walk-off triple by Bradley Strong to halt the game on the mercy rule.
Richlands piled up 14 hits against the ‘Dawgs. Strong had three, matching his RBI total for the game. He also scored three times. Joel Elswick added three hits and batted in four runs. Hearl finished with two hits and four RBI. Barnett banged out two safeties and Jacob Rife, Eric Stiltner, Ben Mulkey and Erik Hess had a hit apiece.
Tazewell finished with six hits, one each from six different players. They were Tyler Kitts (two runs batted in), Lambert, Taylor Herald, (two RBI), Dustin Dean, Michael Ascue and Jason Canning.
Barnett (4-0) picked up the pitching win in a complete game performance and Lambert suffered the loss in his two innings on the mound. Canning relieved Lambert for the final four frames of the contest.
Tazewell and Richlands met again last Saturday in the championship game of the
Coppinger Tournament at Bowen Field in Bluefield as the Blues would again try to topple the six-time Coppinger champions within a 24-hour period.
“We can let this defeat turn around a positive for victory for us tomorrow or we can let this defeat defeat us tomorrow,’ said Perry. “So, it’s going to be on them. They’ve got to flip the switch and change the attitude if they’re going to come out and battle tomorrow.”
“It’s the Coppinger championship and it’s Tazewell,” said coach Strong. “We don’t want to just hand it to them. We want to win the game as much as they do. They’re not going to quit, so we’ve just got to continue to do what we do.”


By JIM TALBERT\Staff
TAZEWELL – Richlands broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the fourth and took sole possession of first place in the Southwest District softball race with a 7-2 win over Tazewell on April 17.
Jenny Keene led off with a single and came around to score on a base hit by Morgan Hill. Hill scored on a single by Kiera Wicks to put the Blues up 4-2. Lindsey Lester survived a rocky first inning on the mound and kept Tazewell scoreless over the final six.
A walk to Cassie Ringstaff and hits by Holly Bandy and Lester put Richlands on top in the first inning. The Bulldogs tied it up with two of their own in the bottom of the first.
Tiffany Harris, Katelyn Mitchell and Kari Chaffin all had base hits with two out as the ‘Dogs got their only tie of the game. Hits by Bandy, Evan Ferrell, Keene and Hill gave Richlands three insurance runs in the fifth.
Tazewell had just four base runners over the final five innings as Lester seemed to get stronger despite the warm day.  The Bulldogs managed just six hits on the day with half of those coming in the first inning.
Richlands Coach Rhonda Blevins was happy with the win over her team’s arch rival. “We put the ball in play all day and were able to take advantage of some opportunities and beat a good team,’’ she said.
The Blues still have Carroll County to play before completing the first half of their district schedule. The Blue Tornado beat Gate City earlier in the week in a non district battle and was scheduled to play again April 18 against non-district foe Honaker at Richlands.
The Blues took an 8-1 record into that game. Tazewell fell to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the district with the loss to RHS. The Bulldogs are not scheduled to play again until the Region II challenge April 25.


By DAVE COX/Staff
BLUEFIELD- Tazewell had manhandled the Graham G-Men in a Southwest District game the day before, but could the Bulldogs do it again when the two squads squared off in the 35th annual Allen B. Coppinger Invitational baseball tournament at Bowen Field last Wednesday?
For a brief span of time, it didn’t seem like that would happen. Graham took an 8-5 lead on the ‘Dawgs into the bottom of the fourth inning, but that was when the “bottom” dropped out for the G-Men! After the dust had settled it was a 17-9 victory for Tazewell, their second straight win in pool play in the tournament.
Tazewell stared its comeback slowly with a single run in the fourth inning to cut the Graham lead to two runs at 8-6, but things exploded in the face of the G-Men just one frame later when THS plated seven runs to grab a 13-8 edge. The Bulldogs were not through by any means! They tacked on four runs in the top of bottom of the sixth to take a 17-8 lead. Graham scored a lone run in the top of the seventh to set the final score at 17-9.
Tazewell’s hit parade included 12 safeties. Four different Bulldogs had two hits each, including Taylor Herald, T. J. Taxley, Mike Wood and Michael Ascue. Trey Lambert chipped in with a double and was the RBI leader for the Bulldogs with three. Wood and Ascue each batted in two runs. THS players with one hit each were Bruiser Moore, J. J. Johnson and Jason Canning.
Canning picked up the pitching victory in relief of starter Dustin Dean who stayed on the mound for 3 1/3 innings. Dean gave up eight runs and seven hits. He struck out five and didn’t walk anyone.
Tazewell started the game out in fine fashion with a 5-run first inning, but Graham shut the Bulldogs out over the next two frames while scoring six runs of their own.