LISBON — It was just another Lisbon/Monmouth Academy baseball game.
Three lead changes, a run in all but one inning, and a hard-fought battle between two starting pitchers was nothing new for these teams.
Despite a strong outing from starter Ryley Austin, the host Greyhounds battled but came up just short Saturday. Monmouth used a pair of clutch hits late in the game to remain perfect in a 6-5 victory.
“This is a classic Lisbon-Monmouth baseball game,” Ridley said. “This is how it’s supposed to be played. We do this year in, year out.”
Lisbon (4-3) jumped on Monmouth (6-0) starting pitcher Hunter Richardson early, taking a 2-0 lead on RBIs from Nick Lerette and Noah Austin in the bottom of the first. The Mustangs responded with runs in the second and third.
“It was just that type of game,” Ridley said. “If you get men on base, you’ve got to execute. If they’re in scoring position, you’ve got to get them in. Today, we did that. They just got one more than we did.”
Lerette doubled to start the fourth inning for Greyhounds, eventually scoring on a Chris Normand RBI single. Cole Bolduc drove in Austin for the second run of the inning, and the Greyhounds took a 4-2 lead into the fifth.
In the top half, Nick Davinksy and Richardson got things going for Monmouth by beating out a ground ball and bunt, respectively. From there, Chandler Harris singled to put Austin in a bases-loaded jam.
Austin, who threw 99 pitches in seven full innings of work, struck out Travis Hartford and forced Avery Pomerleau into a bunt that got the force-out at home, but Mat Foulke had other plans for Monmouth. On the first pitch of his at-bat in the eight spot, he singled into right field, bringing in two runs and giving the Mustangs a 5-4 lead.
“I was looking for one up the middle,” Foulke said. “Get the two RBIs, the guy coming from second and third to score.”
“We had to fight,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said. “We did a good job. We had to battle at the plate. Their pitcher did a great job keeping us off balance and their defense is great. We really battled.”
Tyler Halls earned a walk in the bottom half, then advanced two bases and scored on a Ryley Austin RBI groundout.
In the sixth, Ridley had a decision to make — with a runner in scoring position, Monmouth’s Chandler Harris stepped up to the plate with two outs. Ridley decided against intentionally walking Harris, who made the Greyhounds pay with a go-ahead, eventual game-winning RBI double into the gap.
“Harris was 2-for-2 before that, only one that had really hit the ball hard off of Riley,” Ridley said. “I just didn’t pull the trigger fast enough and when you play a great team like Monmouth is, they’re going to take advantage of that.”
Ryley Austin quickly got out of the inning and tossed a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 seventh to give Lisbon one more crack in the bottom half. He allowed 12 hits and fanned four.
“I’m immensely proud of him,” Ridley said. “He pitched his heart out. He pitched, he didn’t throw, he went out there and he pitched. He executed his pitches. That’s a very solid hitting team, and Riley (Austin) kept them off balance the whole game.”
On the other side, Richardson finished with 95 pitches in the complete-game win for the Mustangs. He walked two with no strikeouts.
“In the beginning of the game, he had too much of the plate,” Palleschi said. “Didn’t work on corners and off-speed stuff was left up. He had to really fight to get to where he got to. I thought he did a good job battling to get to the seventh inning He gave us a chance to win, which is all you can ask.”
Lerette finished 2-for-3 for the Greyhounds, while Halls reached base twice and stole a pair of bases.
“We played with an intensity,” Ridley said. “A mentality that ‘you’re not going to beat us.’ I told them right from the get-go that your attitude and your intensity is what we need to have the rest of the year. The most we’re going to take out of this game is just their intensity level.”
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