Ridgefield baseball shows its versatility

RIDGEFIELD — Ridgefield coach Nick Allen is quick to point out his team’s depth and versatility on offense.

As is junior pitcher and returning All-Region selection Spencer Anderson.

“We’ve got one through nine who can hit very well,” Anderson, who is one of those nine, said.

The bats were on display Tuesday as Ridgefield blew past Hudson’s Bay 9-0 at View Ridge Middle School.

The kicker?

The hits didn’t come from its usual suspects., which Allen figures, only reinforces their offensive depth.

“We can bang the ball to the gap or play a little bit of small ball, we’ve got a little speed, we can do it in several different ways,” Allen said.

Those features of Ridgefield’s on-the-field product could figure to make them the team to beat in what projects to be a competitive and deep 2A Greater St. Helens League.

The Spudders are missing starting pitcher and lead-off hitter Kellen Bringhurst, who sat out Monday and Tuesday with a tweaked knee.

Others stepped up in his absence.

Jeremy Martin doubled into center field in the bottom of the third, which began the Spudders’ scoring barrage. Anderson hit a low RBI single to right field and Ridgefield had three runs in the inning. The following inning, the Spudders erupted for five runs, highlighted by a pop fly double to center field by Jimmy Wallace, which scored two runners.

Martin finished 2-3 from the plat with three runs and an RBI. Tim Radosevich, who also threw a strong relief outing, scored twice and had an RBI while going 2-3 at-bat.

“Today I felt like we got some sparks from different parts of our lineups,” Allen said.

One more run would have ended the game with a 10-run mercy rule, but Hudson’s Bay closed out the inning, and its relief pitching held Ridgefield scoreless from there on out. Lewis Hotchkiss threw the last 2.1 innings and allowed one hit, walked two and struck out two.

The win came on a day Ridgefield’s top pitcher, Anderson, was playing first base. Anderson, who pitched Monday in a 3-1 loss to Skyview, attributed the team’s early success (3-1) to its focus preparing in the winter.

“All winter we were building character,” Anderson said. He opted out of playing basketball to focus on baseball, and is now reaping the benefits. He added 17 pounds of muscle, he said, and added three-to-four miles per hour to his fastball.

Ridgefield return 12 players and a quintet of all-league selections from a team that went 8-4 in league play last season.

Bringhurst, a returning second-team all-league selection, will have an eight-day break before the Chieftains’ next game. The team will travel to Arizona where they will play four games in as many days.

Then after an early bye, they hope to be fully healthy for league play.

“There’s no day off in 2A,” Allen said. “Hockinson will compete their tails off and find a way, Woodland and Washougal same thing. You can’t take the day off in our league.”

Not to exclude Columbia River, who possess a trio of pitchers that will be tough to combat, especially for a team that reached the state quarterfinals last season.

Nor R.A. Long, who returns league MVP Kaden Vanderwerf.

But Allen and the Spudders feel they will be a force. And on Tuesday, they were just that.

“I feel good about where we’re at,” Allen said. “I feel good about the brand of baseball we’re playing right now and the kids are coming together as a group and we’ve got some leaders that are starting to come around.”