By Jeff Markle
Assistant State Director

Castle Rock – The Continental League continued their league play yesterday with ThunderRidge traveling south to take on Douglas County.  Both teams entered Wednesday tied at the top of the league standings and the first 5 innings lived up to the billing.

ThunderRidge wasted no time getting on the board, taking advantage of a leadoff walk to 2016 Phillip Ferguson who then stole second base and advanced to third on a fly out to right field by 2016 Jake Eissler.  2016 Chase Noell delivered a two out single to right to score Ferguson.  The Huskies answered in the bottom of the first with 2 runs of their own.  2016 Jake Minnisk lead off the bottom of the first with a HBP and was advanced by 2017 Corbin Geisendorff’s single to right.  Both players came in to score on a 2017 Brett Johnson single after a 6 pitch at bat.

ThunderRidge tied the game up in the 3^rd inning with back-to-back hits.  Eissler singled up the middle and scored on a double by Noell into the right center gap.

After a quiet 4^th inning from both teams, the Grizzlies began to take control of the game in the 5^th.  Once again the combination of Eissler and Noell got the offense going and this time they both scored on a 2 RBI single to center by 2017 Brody Perkins.  The top of the 6^th inning is where the Grizzlies broke the game open, 4 straight singles followed by a 3 RBI triple from 2018 Jake Haze stretched the score to 9-2, which is where this game ended up.

On the mound, 2017 Tim McIntyre went 5 innings for the Grizzlies and after giving up 2 runs in the first inning, settled in nicely scattering 5 hits and striking out 4.  2016 Anthony Camacci came on to finish off the last two innings giving up 1 hit and collecting 3 K’s.

ThunderRidge improves to 8-1 on the season and 2-0 in league.  The Grizzlies have won 7 straight since dropping an early non-league game to Chatfield and are quietly becoming the top 5A team in the state. 

Up next for ThunderRidge is a trip back to Castle Rock on Friday to take on Castle View High School.  Douglas County will be in action on Friday as well when they travel to Highlands Ranch to take on Rock Canyon High School.