WINTHROP – Coming out of their post-game huddle in center field Friday, every face of a Lisbon baseball player sported a smile.
In about three hours, the Greyhounds had traveled 24 miles to play a home game, watched a teammate crush two balls onto the side of a hill for home runs, and walked off the field with a win that stunned the Winthrop Ramblers, and Lisbon’s own coach, into silence.
Levi Ervin launched two solo home runs deep to left field and Brandon Riordan pitched a three-hitter to lead Lisbon to a 3-2 win over Winthrop at Winthrop High School. The loss is Winthrop’s second in as many games after starting 10-2, while Lisbon improved to 5-10 with the victory and dramatically improved its playoff prospects.
“I’m almost speechless, I really am,” said Lisbon coach Randy Ridley. “We finally won a close game. That was the best game, defensively and pitching-wise, that we’ve played all year.”
Part of that equation was Riordan, a sophomore making just his second start of the season. He used a cut fastball, a curve and change to baffle Winthrop hitters all afternoon, and faced just three batters over the minimum.
“Everything clicked today,” said Riordan. “The fastball, the curve, the change, it was all dialed up.”
Behind Riordan, the infielders were nearly spotless. A low throw by third-baseman Chris Kates was the lone Greyhound error, and that play still resulted in an out when Forrest Dwyer tried to make it to third on the throwing error and was pegged on the return throw.
“That’s a big win for them,” said Winthrop coach Marc Fortin. “We’re usually very quick on the basepaths, but we couldn’t get anyone on base today. Plus, when we did, we had a couple of baserunning errors that might have cost us some runs.”
Winthrop, playing as the visiting team its own field, plated the first run of the game in the top of the second inning when Travis Frautten doubled to left field and reached third on a balk. David Ricker then hit a deep fly ball to center, allowing Frautten to score.
Ervin took care of that Rambler lead on the first pitch of the bottom half of that inning, taking a fastball offering from Dwyer deep to left.
“It’s been coming together in the last two or three weeks,” said Ervin. “I changed my stance a bit to get a little more leverage and I get my head around better.”
In Ervin’s next at-bat, the junior was anxious to try and hit a second home run, and fanned on two pitches before reaching on an error.
“I was a little anxious on that one,” said Ervin. “I had never hit two in a game before.”
Devan Knight crossed the plate in the fifth inning to put Lisbon ahead 2-1 on a Kates’ sacrifice fly, and Ervin gave the Greyhounds an insurance run in the sixth with his second home run of the game, to nearly the same spot.
Chip Burnham scored from third on a ground out after reaching with a double in the seventh inning, before Riordan closed the door with his ninth ground-ball out of the game. He finished with six strikeouts and just one walk.
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