For the second time this season on Saturday, it took extra innings to decide the outcome between Region 3-AAAAA rivals Richmond Hill and Effingham County, and for the second time this season, it was the Wildcats who emerged the winners.
Richmond Hill rallied twice, the final time from down a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Alex Peraldo led off with a single and scored on a throwing error off a bunt single by Chandler Newman to tie the game up. Brian Eichorn then sprinted home on a wild pitch, giving the Wildcats a 7-6 victory at Wildcat Field.
Richmond Hill (8-11 overall, 7-2 region) previously beat the Rebels 4-2 in eight innings on March 9, and this win couldn’t have come at a more pivotal time for the Wildcats, who moved a half game ahead of Glynn Academy and a full game ahead of the Rebels for second place in the region standings.
“This team has done a good job of battling all year,” Richmond Hill coach Stacy Bennett said afterward. “And we finally were able to get on the other side of that hump and win a one-run game, so I was glad to see that. I can’t say enough about the fight in this bunch.”
After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, the Wildcats battled back to take a brief 2-1 lead in the bottom half of the inning on a two-run triple by Peraldo that plated Dominic Montalto and Peyton Carter. But the Rebels (9-7, 6-3) bounced back with a pair of runs in the second and two more in the third off Richmond Hill starter Kyle Jamar to gain a 5-2 advantage. Rebel shortstop Cal Baker was the main instigator, stroking a pair of RBI singles in both frames to give his team the upper hand.
The Wildcats began to claw their way back in the fourth inning against Effingham starter Josh Gilliam. With two outs, Eichorn reached on a two-base error and scored on an RBI basehit by Newman to make it a 5-3 game. The score tightened even more in the fifth. Chaise Parker reached on an error, and a bunt single by Michael Teston forced Gilliam from the game. Reliever Spencer Gillis surrendered a bunt single to Justin Henle to load the bases, and Carter’s RBI groundout made it 5-4.
Still down a run in the seventh, the Wildcats got the leadoff man on, when Parker singled through the right side and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Teston and later to third on a Henle ground out. Gillis, still in the game, quickly got ahead of Montalto 0-2, but the senior rightfielder spoiled a couple of pitches by fouling them away and eventually worked the count even. Montalto, who had been held hitless on the day, then got a fastball and drove it into the left-center gap for a game-tying double that knotted things up at 5.
The Rebels briefly regained the lead in the eighth on Jacob Teston’s RBI double before Richmond Hill’s last-inning heroics. It was the only run Effingham managed in five innings off Wildcat reliever Brian Strahan, who picked up the win and helped take Jamar off the hook following an uncharacteristic shaky outing.
EC 122 000 01—6 10 4
RH 200 110 12—7 12 3
WP—Brian Strahan. LP—Spencer Gillis. Leading hitters—EC: Eric Knox 2-3, 2 BB, Cal Baker 2-5, 2 RBIs; RH: Chandler Newman 3-4, RBI, Alex Peraldo 2-4, 3B, 2 RBIs. Records—EC 9-7 overall, 6-3 Region 3-AAAAA; RH 8-11, 7-2.