In what was an intense last few innings that had fans on the edge of their seats, the Red Deer Riggers lost to the Sherwood Park Athletics at home 4-3 Friday night.
The Riggers got off to an explosive start thanks to a three-run home run to centre field off Corbyn Shields’ bat.
“It’s just kind of getting a little bit deeper in the season, things just starting to feel a bit better and I don’t know just one of those days seeing the ball well and got lucky a couple times I guess,” Shields told the Advocate.
Sherwood Park scored the first run of the game in the fourth inning.
The fifth inning, however, things began to unravel for Red Deer. Just when it seemed like the Riggers were going to get out of the inning with no runs scored by Sherwood Park, there was a costly error by two Riggers fielders and the ball in and out of a glove scoring two runs to tie the game at three.
In the sixth inning, the ball seemed to pop off Shields’ bat, he sent another deep shot to left field, which just fell short of going over the fence, resulting in a double. After a sacrifice hit to move Shields to third base, the Riggers were unable to cash in the run.
In the seventh inning, Sherwood Park took the lead on a solo home run in what would be the game-winning run for the Athletics 4-3.
Shields had an impressive game at the plate with three RBIs and two hits.
“Pretty good game all around. Came down to kind of that one inning we had the collision out there, and a ball off a pitcher’s glove that just kind of found no man’s land. That double at the end we just kind of have to find a way to score that guy, which ended up being me,” Shields added.
Jay Kirkham had a solid outing on the mound throwing three strikeouts on five innings pitched before being relieved by Anthony Chatwood in the sixth inning. Kai Poffenroth pitched the seventh inning allowing the solo home run but struck out one batter.
Next up for the Riggers in Sunburst League action is a date with the Padres on June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Pogadl Park in Sylvan Lake.