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Sports

Baseball: River Hill Dominates Centennial

The River Hill bats came alive to score nine runs in support of their senior starter Brandon Estrain, who went all seven innings for the Hawks for a 9-1 victory.

It was a battle of the birds in Howard County on Friday, when the River Hill Hawks traveled to Centennial High School to take on the Eagles. It was the Hawks who flew higher then the Eagles on this day as River Hill beat Centennial, 9-1.

The win is the third of the year for the Hawks over the Eagles. River Hill will now face Reservoir High in their next game. Reservoir is undefeated and the top seed in the county.

“It’s tough to beat a team three times in a year,” River Hill Coach Wes McCoy said. “We knew that coming in, and we had a real good game with them last time. I thought our guys handled the pressure well, and it was a great game and a great win.”

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The game started out on the right foot for the River Hill bats. After Evan Griffin walked to start the inning, he was eliminated on a Richie Lancashire fielder’s choice. But the next four Hawks hitters all reached base, including a single to left field by the Hawks starting pitcher and senior captain, Brandon Estrain, that scored another team captain in Danny Caddigan.

After the top of the first inning River Hill led 2-0, a lead they would never relinquish.

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Hawks starter Estrain pitched all seven innings for River Hill, allowing only one run on three hits while striking out nine. He walked only two hitters in the game—one in the first and one in the seventh—and allowed only one Eagle to reach third base in the game.

“Everything was working,” Estrain said. “[Getting] first-pitch called strikes or them swinging early helped me a lot. I’m going out there to throw strikes. If they hit, they hit; we have a good defense.”

Up 2-1, the Hawks added two more in the third on RBIs from Nick Riso and Sama Kolodrubetz. Davis Grove and Zach Scott both came around to score. They then added two runs in the fourth, one in the sixth, and two more in the seventh to round out their scoring on the day.

Grove went 3-5 on the day for River Hill with two runs scored, while Griffin went 2-3 with two walks and two runs scored from the leadoff position. Scott and Caddigan each had two RBI’s in the game.

“We hit the ball pretty well,” McCoy said. “We had contributions all up and down the lineup. Some of our younger guys hit the ball well, and I think most importantly we had situational hitting. With less then two outs we were able to move guys over and get the big hits to knock them in. It was a job well done on the offensive side.”

The lone Centennial run came in the second inning when Long led off with a single and finally came around to score after a balk and a fielder’s choice. From then on, the Eagles would never send more then four hitters to the plate in one inning.

Up next for River Hill comes a tough matchup with the best team in the county, Reservoir High School. Zach Scott is scheduled to be the Hawks starter.

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