Richlands is 1-9 against Swansboro since April of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Richlands Wildcats will be playing at home against the Swansboro Pirates at 7:00 p.m. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Richlands will roll into the match after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up one run on Tuesday, then bounced right back against White Oak on Wednesday. Richlands was the clear victor by an 11-1 margin over White Oak.
Hayden Turner was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he pitched five innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits. Turner was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring three runs while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, Walker Smith was incredible, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Chris Pyles, who scored two runs and stole three bases while getting on base in two of his three plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Swansboro has not done well against West Carteret recently (they were 0-9 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Swansboro had just enough and edged West Carteret out 3-2. The win made it back-to-back victories for Swansboro.
Ryan Brinkley spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned (and one unearned) run on five hits and racked up eight Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't pitched less than five innings in four consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Swansboro saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Rusty Haswell, who went 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI.
Richlands' win ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 3-16. As for Swansboro, they have been performing well recently as they've won nine of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 10-6 record this season.
Richlands suffered a grim 14-4 defeat to Swansboro in their previous meeting two weeks ago. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Swansboro's Patrick Hollifield, who didn't allow a single earned run over four innings pitched. Now that Richlands knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
