The Redlegs and Rangers squared off on Sunday July 31st
for their 4th and final meeting of the 2016 regular
season. The Rangers held the series advantage 2-1, but
after strong pitching performances from Kevin Campbell
and Aaron Carmack the Redlegs would even up the season
series of the friendly “Backyard Battle” rivalry.
The Redlegs struck first in the bottom half of the 1st
inning. Jacob Robinson started things off with a walk,
Jackson Millard then singled which moved Robinson over to
3rd. Kyle Arend then hit a hot shot at Rangers 3rd
baseman Robert Riley. Riley vacuumed it up and delivered
a perfect throw to the plate to easily cut down Robinson
who tried to score on the play. Brandon Howard then
mashed a double to the fence in center field to score a
run. Brad Clark then hit a ground ball to short. With
runners on 2nd and 3rd the Rangers were able to nab
Howard trying to advance to 3rd, but Arend was able to
score on the play to give the Redlegs a 2-0 advantage.
Mike Hartman increased the Redlegs lead to 4-0 in the 2nd
when he blasted a 2 run homer over the right field fence.
He drove in Matt Mattice who singled to lead off the
inning.
Meanwhile Campbell was putting together another excellent
start, keeping the Rangers off the board over the first 4
innings and scattering only 3 hits. The Rangers finally
dented his armor in the 5th, pushing 2 runs across thanks
to a couple of fielding errors.
With the lead cut to 4-2 going into the bottom of the
5th, the Redlegs got the 2 runs right back. Brandon
Howard reached on an error to start the inning, Brad
Clark singled but was forced out at 2nd on a fielder’s
choice ground ball to short. An errant throw trying to
turn the double play then allowed Howard to score.
Hartman continued to deal damage as he then doubled home
a run and brought himself a triple away from the cycle.
Campbell went out in the 6th and after a strikeout, it
looked like the Rangers may have finally solved him as
they loaded the bases with 2 hits and a walk. Aaron
Carmack would then enter and after getting a fly out
sacrifice fly to Nick Gilmore he recorded an inning
ending strikeout to get out of the jam. Carmack would go
on to retire 11 straight batters to earn the save.
The Redlegs did add some cushion in the 7th when Matt
Morrison reached on an error, stole 2nd, and scored on a
double by Matt Mattice. Hartman then drove in Mattice
with his 4th knock of the day.
The Redlegs improve to 15-6 with the win and will look to
close out the season strong with double headers vs. the
Knights and Stars to close out the 2016 regular season.
Boxscore
| J Robinson | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| J Millard | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K Arend | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B Howard | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B Clark | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| M Morrison | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| M Mattice | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| M Hartman | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| J Bradley | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M Redman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| G Pfeiffer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2B: Arend; Howard; Mattice; Hartman
HR: Hartman
| K Campbell (W) | 5.67 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| A Carmack (S) | 3.33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |