The Ridgefield Raptors hit the road this weekend to take on the Marion Berries after a quick home series against the Yakima Valley Pippins.
This will be the third all-time meeting between the Raptors and the Berries, the first in Salem. The Berries play their home games at the newly renovated Chemeketa Community College’s campus.
The Berries are off to a 6-4 start and 1.5 games back of the Raptors for the top spot in the WCL South standings. Marion won two of three at home over Port Angeles on opening weekend and then swept Bend in its opening series. The Berries have cooled off, losing three of their past four games to Yakima Valley and Corvallis. They finish a two-game series with the Knights tonight in Corvallis.
Ridgefield has delighted its home fans with two exciting wins over the Pippins to claim back-to-back series victories. The Raptors won 4-1 Tuesday and pulled away late over the Pippins, 9-3, with a six-run surge in the seventh and eighth innings.
In Game 1, the Raptors loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the third. Michael Perazzo (Sacramento St.) chopped a grounder to short. The Pippins took the force out at second, but not in time to retire Perazzo, hustling down the line, to give the Raptors a 1-0 lead.
Daichi Furuhata slammed a line drive to center field just over Ridgefield center fielder Isaiah Hearn’s (Oregon) glove to tie the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
The Raptors immediately responded with three singles to load the bases for Zach Wadas (Loyola Marymount), who ripped a two-run single to right field. Bo Rico (Fresno St.) grounded into a double play that brought home a run to give the Raptors a 4-1 lead.
The bullpen duo of Max Schneider (Loyola Marymount) and Caiden Thomsen (Linn-Benton CC) tossed three scoreless innings to clinch the 4-1 win.
The Pippins struck first in the top of the second inning on Derek Almeda’s solo blast to left field.
Wadas put the Raptors ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the third with his second bomb of the year, a two-run rope to the right-field berm.
The Pippins tied the game 3-3 on an error by Perazzo in the top of the seventh.
Ridgefield once again responded, with Reagan McClusky (Dallas Baptist) scorching a two-run double in a 1-2 count to give the Raptors a 5-3 lead.
The Raptors added four runs on four hits in the bottom of the eighth to cruise to a 9-3 win.
Ridgefield goes for the sweep tonight at 6:35 p.m. PT, then heads south on I-5 to Oregon’s state capital to meet the Berries over the weekend.
Fans can go to ridgefieldraptors.com to purchase tickets to the home series against the Walla Walla Sweets, June 19-21 at the RORC. The livestream to watch or listen to the games will be available at ridgefieldraptors.com/stream.