Blues stay undefeated with win over Marion

By DAVE COX/Staff
MARION- One Southwest District win in one day was not enough for the undefeated Richlands Blue Tornado varsity baseball team, so they just crossed a couple of mountains and collected a second one on Monday, April 21!
Richlands (11-0, 5-0 SWD) finished up a suspended game against Tazewell Monday morning before traveling to Marion that evening to grab an 11-4 district victory over the Scarlet Hurricanes.
The Blues jumped out to a 5-0 edge before Marion was able to post a run in the bottom of the third inning. RHS answered with a run in the top of the fourth and held the Hurricanes off the scoreboard until MHS plated three late runs in the bottom of the seventh off relief pitcher Joel Elswick. Eric Stiltner (3-0) started on the mound for RHS and went six frames. He gave up just three hits and one run. Stiltner fanned six batters and walked three in picking up the pitching win. Elswick yielded a pair of hits, three runs and struck out three batters. He did not walk anyone.
The Blues banged out 12 hits, led by Elswick’s bat. He stroked three hits and knocked in four runs, giving him 12 RBI in his last two games. Stlitner helped his cause with three hits and two RBI. He scored one run. Jordan Barnett also had three hits and he batted in a run while scoring three. Taylor Sizemore had one hit and batted in one run. Blayke Wilson finished with two hits for RHS. Christian Hearl scored three times and Jacob Rife, Ben Mulkey and Bradley Strong crossed the plate one time each.
“I thought it was kind of a fun day for us to get out and play Tazewell again and everybody got some playing time and we came out with (two) wins today,” said Richlands head coach Brad Strong. “Eric Stiltner threw a fine game tonight and Joel came in and got the job done after not much time to get loose.”