When things aren’t going right for the Grand Forks Red River baseball team, the Riders still believe they can win.
With this season’s solid pitching and defense, the Roughriders usually don’t find themselves in too much trouble.
Down 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Red River was able to come back to beat Fargo Davies 3-2 on a walk-off single from Brady Regimbal in the first game of a doubleheader at Kraft Field on Thursday.
“The good thing about this particular team is that they’re never say die,” said Roughrider coach Mark Varriano. “This is the second game in a row that we’ve had to come back in the seventh inning to win ball game. But it shows a lot of character and I’m proud of the kids.”
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The Riders started off the scoring in the first inning when Colin Hennessy reached base on a fielder’s choice. Hennessy stole second, then two wild pitches allowed him to reach third and eventually score.
After a strong start from Red River starting pitcher Christian Bauduin, Davies was able to get the lead in the fourth inning on a Carter Sanden double that scored Aidan Hartness and Andrew Lein.
But the Eagles defense fell apart in the bottom of the seventh.
Red River’s Dan Raymond was walked by Aidan Hartness to start the inning. Hartness then hit Sam Bye with a pitch, followed by a Davies’ error on a Logan Montgomery bunt to load the bases.
The Riders tied the game when Jayce Turner batted in Raymond on another Eagles’ error.
Regimbal followed with a single to left to score Montgomery with the winning run.
Ryan Richardson picked up the win in relief for the Riders. Despite Bauduin not getting the win, Varriano said he is confident with whoever is on the mound.
“We have faith in all of our kids that go up there and throw strikes.” said Varriano. “We feel that whoever we stick on the mound, we have confidence in. He (Bauduin) threw well enough to win’ we just didn’t hit well enough for him to get the win.”
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The win, Red River’s fifth in a row, improved the Riders to 8-2 heading into the second game of the East Region doubleheader.
