The Roanoke Rapids High School Yellow Jackets Varsity Baseball team won a wild marathon game over the Rocky Mount Gryphons on Wednesday night by a score of 15-14.
The Yellow Jackets got on the board first in the bottom of the 1st inning when AJ Strickland doubled home Caleb Elias.
The 1-0 lead would be short lived as Rocky Mount plated 9 runs in the top of the 2nd inning to take a 9-1 lead. The lead would grow to 13-1 after the Gryphons score 4 more runs in the top of the 4th inning.
RRHS got back on the scoreboard with 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning off of hits by Jacob Deberry, Wade Jenkins, Ethan Vincent, and Jon Conner. This made the score 13-4 after 4 innings of play.
Rocky Mount scored their final run of the night in the top of the 5th inning to make the score 14-4. The Yellow Jacket bats would come alive again in the bottom of the 5th inning. Josh Coker had an RBI double. Caleb Elias had a sacrifice fly to score a run. Then the big blow of the inning came off the bat of AJ Strickland. With the bases loaded and a 2-0 count, Strickland hit a grand slam to centerfield to make the score 14-10 after 5 innings of play.
RRHS scored a single run in the 6th inning to make the score 14-11 heading into the last inning of play. Wade Jenkins would get an RBI single to open the scoring in the 7th. With the bases loaded Caleb Elias drew a walk for an RBI and cut the deficit down to 1. With the bases loaded, a full count, and 2 outs Ethan Vincent delivered the 2 RBI walk-off double to secure the win for Roanoke Rapids.
Ethan Vincent started on the mound for the Yellow Jackets. He was relieved by Trevor Harrison. Wade Jenkins then picked up the win on the mound in relief of Harrison. Jenkins had 4 strikeouts and shut down the Rocky Mount bats over his 3+ innings of work.
Coach Mark Snead said, "This was a total team win for our ball club tonight. All 13 guys helped contribute in this come back win. After we got down early, we talked about how true character is revealed through adversity. We talked about cutting the lead down one inning at a time and that's what the guys did. I am so proud of how they didn't give up and kept fighting until the final out. We obviously need to clean some things up, but our team chemistry and attitude is right where we need to be. This was a big win for our team."
With the win the Yellow Jackets improve to 2-0 on the season. The next Varsity Baseball game will be on Monday March 9 when RRHS travels to Brunswick Academy.
RRHS Baseball 2020 Schedule
Date Opponent Location Team Time
Mon. 3/2 Bertie Home Varsity Win 6-3
Wed. 3/4 Rocky Mount Home Varsity Win 15-14
Mon. 3/9 Brunswick Academy Away JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Wed. 3/11 Bertie Away Varsity 5:00 PM
Thur. 3/12 DH Conley Away JV 5:00 PM
Tues. 3/17 Granville Central Home JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Wed. 3/18 Brunswick Academy Home JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Fri. 3/20 Granville Central Away JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Tues. 3/24 Louisburg Away Varsity 6:00 PM
Fri. 3/27 Louisburg Home Varsity 6:00 PM
Tues. 3/31 South Granville Home Varsity 6:00 PM
Wed. 4/1 Southampton (VA) Home JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Fri. 4/3 South Granville Away Varsity 6:00 PM
Sat. 4/11 Easter Tournament Away Varsity TBA
Mon. 4/13 Easter Tournament Away Varsity TBA
Tues. 4/14 Easter Tournament Away Varsity TBA
Tue. 4/21 JF Webb Away JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Fri. 4/24 JF Webb Home JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Tues. 4/28 Warren County Away Varsity 5:00 PM
Fri. 5/1 Warren County Home Varsity 6:00 PM
Tues. 5/5 Bunn Home JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
Thur. 5/7 Bunn Away JV and V 4pm/6:30pm
