Murfreesboro Post
MURFREESBORO WEATHER

Riverdale baseball sweeps Oakland




Riverdale shortstop Jaxen Bryant leaps for a catch against Oakland on Thursday night. PHOTO BY MICHAEL GIGLIO

Riverdale’s baseball team completed a three-game sweep over rival and district foe Oakland with a 2-1 win at Oakland Thursday night.


The Warriors won the first two games at home Tuesday and Wednesday by scores of 4-2 and 5-4, respectively.
“The sweep was huge,” Riverdale game-winning pitcher Zan Currie said. “It feels good. (Oakland is) a good rival. We came into this with that as our goal, and we succeeded.”


Currie threw a complete-game, two-hitter with six strikeouts, and yielding just the run that came late in the bottom of the sixth.


“The curveball was working well,” Currie said. “I introduced the sinker tonight and it worked well for me.”


The Warriors jumped out early and grabbed what proved to be the game-winning runs in their first at-bat. Bradley Pippin led off with a base hit on the first pitch of the game, and came around to eventually score on a sac fly from Jaxon Pridgen.


The next batter, Jax Nichols, smashed an RBI double, scoring Caleb Jordan for Riverdale’s second run, which gave Currie a two-run cushion before the pitcher ever took the mound.


“I love our offense,” Currie said. “It felt good and gave me confidence going out there. Then we kept it up, defense did great, my catcher (Nichols) did great back there, and the coaching was great.”


The Patriots also got a complete-game effort from hurler Carson Love, who settled in after a rough first and ended with a formidable outing as well.


“I think I struggled with all of my pitches in the first inning,” Love said. “But I pushed through it and threw a good game after that. I think we lacked at the plate tonight, and that happens. Other than that I think we came out and did pretty good tonight.


“I think we pitched well for the series and played the field well. We hit very well last night, but just didn’t swing it tonight. There was a few small things we did on the base paths that hurt us a little, but (moving forward) we just need some timely hits.”


Love was also responsible for Oakland’s lone run in the sixth, a sacrifice fly deep to center that scored shortstop Patrick Freeman, who led off the inning with a base hit and moved around on a wild pitch and sac bunt.