The River Ridge baseball team couldn’t crawl out of an early hole against Gig Harbor and lost 16-3 at home Monday afternoon.
The Tides roughed up the Hawks pitchers in the first inning, loading the bases with no one out. After the Hawks recorded two outs without any damage, Gig Harbor scored six two-out runs highlighted by a two-run single by Jason Coray and two runs on a passed ball.
River Ridge had a promising start to the bottom half of the first as Jalon Fulton doubled but was caught stealing third, Kaiee Kopp singled, and Aaron Leu walked. The Tides turned a double play to end the Hawks’ chances of chipping away at the deficit.
Jake Cuda ripped a two-run, two-out home run to center field in the second, extending the Tides’ lead to 8-0. River Ridge got on the scoreboard in the third with two runs off of errors by the Gig Harbor pitcher.
Gig Harbor kept rolling offensively, bringing runners home in each of the final four innings capped off by a four-run seventh. Jax Fulton’s RBI single gave River Ridge its third run in the fifth.
“The big thing for us was giving up free bases,” River Ridge head coach Ben Rood said. “Against a team like Gig Harbor, that’s going to hurt. They’re well-coached and make you pay for it. We’ll clean that up and get back after it this week.”
Next up for River Ridge (2-2, 1-2 Puget Sound League) is a two-game set this week with Lakes, first in Lakewood on Tuesday and then at home on Wednesday.
