After scoring 21 runs in each of its first two games, the River Ridge softball team could only muster up three runs in a 9-3 loss at home to Shelton Friday.
Shelton struck first with a run in the first before River Ridge tied the game with a bases-loaded walk by Kaylani Karageorge in the bottom half of the frame. The Highclimbers led off the second with a triple and eventually scored that runner and then two more on an error. Shelton took a 5-1 lead in the third, and Karageorge delivered another RBI in the third, scoring Raylie Birklid with a single to left.
The Highclimbers rallied with two outs in the fifth, and an infield error by the Hawks with the bases loaded turned into a bases-clearing ground ball to give Shelton an 8-2 advantage.
Birklid pitched a complete game for River Ridge, allowing only four hits and striking out eight batters. But she allowed nine runs, four of which were earned, and walked eight. The Hawks only suffered two defensive errors, but those errors were responsible for five runs.
River Ridge (2-1, 2-0 Puget Sound League) will host PSL foe Timberline (1-0, 1-0 Puget Sound League) Monday, March 23 at the Regional Athletic Complex.
