Colonial Heights, VA- The blue overall and red flannel shirt clad Olney Cropdusters from the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League visited Shepherd Stadium for the first time ever Monday night for Tri-City’s Independence Day celebration and left with a 10-8 win. Both teams made steaming comebacks at various points of the matchup that featured four home runs.
Two of those home runs came in the first two innings for Olney against Joe Hastings (Virginia State) building an early 5-0 lead for the visitors. Avery Neaves (Lynchburg) cut into that lead with a leadoff home run in the second inning but that would be the only scoring of the inning. Neaves has not hit a home run in CPL play this season but is hitting .333 with four runs scored in eight games.
After a tough start, Hastings found his rhythm in the third and fourth innings, retiring the last six batters he faced in order, striking out five in a row. That put food on the table for the Chilly Peppers offense to feast in the fourth inning as they loaded the bases with no outs. Eli Weisner (Charlotte) brought in the first of seven runs with an RBI single that made it 5-2. Neaves came home on a wild pitch and then William Bean (Virginia Commonwealth) added a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to two runs. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases for the other Chilly Pepper VCU bat Brandon Eike who almost predictably left the yard to center field for a grand slam and an 8-5 Chilly Peppers lead. Eike has eight home runs and 29 RBIs across all games this season.
The Chillys were held off the scoreboard the rest of the way despite loading the bases again with none out in the eighth and putting the winning runs on the bases in the ninth. Meanwhile the Cropdusters scored in three of the last four innings to pull off a 10-8 comeback win.
Official Box Score: Tri-City Chili Peppers vs. Cropdusters Baseball – Coastal Plain League – boxscore | Pointstreak Sports Technologies
Upcoming Games:
Tuesday, July 4 (7:00) @ Martinsville Mustangs, no Chili Peppers broadcast, Martinsville broadcast available on FloSports.
Thursday, July 6 (6:30) @ HP-Thomasville HiToms, Listen on Mixlr
Friday, July 7 (7:00) vs. Peninsula Pilots
Saturday, July 8 (7:00) @ Holly Springs Salamanders, Listen on Mixlr