Blazers host state champion Hartsville Saturday in District V semifinals
 
By John Devlin 4/25/2008
Ridge View hosts defending Class 4A state champion Hartsville Saturday at 4 p.m. in a District V baseball playoff semifinal game.

“They are a great team, the defending champs, so we know we’ll have to be at our best,” said Blazers coach Tommy Hill.

Ridge View won its 20th game in 25 tries in the district opener on Thursday, downing visiting West Ashley 6-2. Tony Price’s three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning highlighted a six-run burst that took care of the Blazers offensive production for the night.

Jay Griffin was the winning pitcher, going all seven innings while allowing six hits and one earned run.

Hill said Will Taylor (2-0, 2.55 ERA) is the likely starter against Hartsville, which is currently ranked No. 2 in the 4A ranks. The Red Foxes lost out in the Region 6-4A pennant race to top-ranked Conway, but remains one of the teams to beat in the scramble for the 2008 state championship.

Blazers rate top 5-4A playoff seed

Ridge Vew hosts West Ashley in District 5 opener
 
By John Devlin 4/22/2008
Ridge View has emerged as the No. 1 seed out of Region 5-4A and opens the Class 4A state baseball playoffs Thursday at home in District V play against West Ashley.

The Blazers enter postseason play at 19-5 overall, and finished the 5-4A campaign with a 5-3 record and in a four-way tie for first place. Ridge View rated the top-seed by earning the most points in non-tournament, non-region games during the regular season.

“We are certainly excited going into the playoffs,” said RV coach Tommy Hill. “We have some momentum, winning our last five games and scoring 57 runs in the last four. But we know that every team in the playoffs will be competitive, so we’re going to take one game at a time.”

Ridge View is actually hotter than Hill said. The Blazers won 13 of their final 14 regular season games, falling only to Richland Northeast during the surge.

Jay Griffin will be the Blazers starting pitcher against the Wildcats from Charleston. The staff ace is 7-1 with two shutouts, one save and a 1.91 ERA. The senior served up just 28 hits in 40.1 innings of work, striking out 33 and issuing 15 walks.

“We’ve hit the ball pretty good all season, we’ve pitched well for the most part and played good defense,” said Hill.

Ridge View hit .351 as a team during the regular season, and sports an impressive .440 team on-base percentage.

Senior Cam White is the offensive trigger man, hitting .448 with nine home runs, 19 extra base hits, 33 runs scored and 26 RBIs. Sophomore Hughston Armstrong led the team with a .475 batting average, cracking five homers, scoring 34 runs and driving in 16 runs.

The other offensive notables are sophomore Austin Ross (. 392, 22 RBIs), junior Andrew Hill (.383, 25 runs, 23 RBIs), senior Will Taylor (.354, 26 RBIs), junior Julio Iglesais (.333, 17 runs, 16 RBIs) and Griffin (.286, 26 RBIs).

Hill’s other pitching options as the playoffs go on could include Taylor (2-0, 2.55 ERA), Hill (3-2, 4.55 ERA), White (3-0, 5.34 ERA), sophomore Scott Baldwin (2-0, 2.62 ERA), junior Richard Crisostomo (1-1, 1.79 ERA) and junior Tony Price (1-1, 1.68 ERA).

The Blazers will be at home on Saturday, no matter the outcome of Thursday’s opener.

White had a memorable outing in the Blazers' regular season finale against Airport on Senior Night. White was the winning pitcher in the five-inning affair, and went 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs, including a grand slam homer that set a new single-season school record for round trippers.

RV back to region play after bagging tournament title in Camden

 
By John Devlin 3/31/2008 of The State Newspaper

Ridge View returns to the serious business of getting back into the Region 5-4A pennant race Tuesday night at Lower Richland after going 4-0 at the Telasco Alarm Services Inc. spring break baseball tournament at Camden last week.

It was the second tournament triumph of the season for Tommy Hill’s team, which is a combined 8-0 in tournament play this spring. Ridge View went 4-0 to win the preseason Lake Murray Classic title.

But things have not gone as well for the Blazers (11-3) in region play. To date, RV stands at 1-2 in conference matters and must makes its move this week to be in contention. After the Tuesday encounter with the last place Diamond Hornets, the Blazers take on Dutch Fork Thursday at home. The Silver Foxes beat Ridge View 6-5 in the region opener for both teams on March 11.

Here are some highlights from the action last week in Camden:

Senior right-hander Jay Griffin improved to 4-1 on the mound and lowered his ERA to 1.73 with a complete-game, three-hit shutout against Camden.

Will Taylor and Andrew Hill combined to pitched a five-hitter with eight strikeouts in 6-3 extra-inning win over Lugoff-Elgin. Hill was the winner to up his record to 3-1, and also went 6-for-16 with four RBIs at the plate during the tournament, raising his batting average to .413 and his RBI count to 19.

Senior Cam White went 8-for-14 in the tournament, including a two-run home run against L-E. White is hitting .469 with four homers and 10 RBIs.

Sophomore outfielder Hughston Armstrong was 4-for-7 with six walks and six runs scored. He is batting .375.

Blazers’ bats overpower RNE
Ridge View knocks seven hits in a row in first inning to start avalanche
 
By Steve Wiseman 3/15/2008 of The State Newspaper

It did not take Ridge View High long to find its hitting stroke Friday night.

It did take a while for the Blazers to fall back out of their groove.

Seven consecutive first-inning hits fueled a seven-run outburst that carried Ridge View to a 12-5 victory against Richland Northeast in a Region 5-4A baseball game.

“We were swinging the bats,” said Ridge View coach Tommy Hill, whose team improved to 7-1 overall, 1-1 in Region 5-4A. “We’ve been hitting the ball well all year long. We’ve been able to put together some big innings.”

RNE grabbed a 1-0 lead off Ridge View starter Will Taylor in the first inning as Ryan Mercer’s two-out single drove in Domineke Albert.

The Blazers obliterated that lead in the blink of an eye.

Houghston Armstrong started the first-inning uprising by drawing a walk before the thunder struck.

Andrew Hill began the consecutive hit streak by lining a double up the gap in right-centerfield tying the score.

Taylor jumped on RNE starter Kenny Upshaw’s next pitch and ripped a bad-hop single past Cavaliers second baseman Brett Fulmer, putting Ridge View on top.

On Upshaw’s next pitch, Julio Iglesias blooped a soft liner that dropped fair down the right-field line. Jay Griffin then worked the count before lifting an inside fastball just over the shortstop’s head for an RBI single and a 3-1 Ridge View lead.

Blake Clamp’s RBI single was followed by Tony Price’s ringing double that bounced off the left-centerfield fence that put the Blazers up 5-1 and drive Upshaw off the mound.

Sophomore Austin Ross concluded the onslaught against Fulmer, who replaced Upshaw, by lining a single through the drawn-in infield, driving in two runs to put Ridge View up 7-1.

“Pretty much coach (Brett) Ross, our first base coach, told us to be aggressive at the plate,” said Iglesias, who collected three of the Blazers 13 hits. “So we were just waiting for a good pitch to hit and we pretty much just drove the ball.”

Ridge View wasn’t content to sit on its lead.

The Blazers mixed three solid hits with two hit batters and a walk to score for more times off Fulmer in the second and take an 11-1 lead. Two-run doubles by Iglesias and Ross highlighted that rally.

“We never let up because you never know in baseball, especially high school baseball,” Iglesias said. “No lead is big enough really. So we just keep adding on and adding on. We never settle for anything.”

Jay Griffin’s pitching helped ensure the Blazers were scoring enough. When Taylor faltered in the second inning by walking three batters with a six-run lead, Griffin took over and wiggled out of a two-on, two-out jam. While RNE did score four runs, three of them were unearned as Griffin got enough outs to protect the big lead.

“Will’s one of our starting pitchers and it just wasn’t there tonight,” Hill said. “Jay’s pitched great for us all year. We’ve got some pitching depth and it was nice to have that tonight.”

Reach Wiseman at 803-771-8472.

Ridge View 12, Richland Northeast 5

At Ridge View

W: Jay Griffin (3-1). L: Kenny Upshaw. Hitters: RV — Julio Iglesias 3-4, 2 RBI, Austin Ross 2-4, 4 RBI. RNE — Mercer 2-4, RBI. Recs.: RNE 5-3, 1-1; RV 7-1, 1-1.

Thursday Night

Ridge View 5, Irmo 4

At Irmo

W: Tony Price (1-0). L: Garrett Driscoll (0-2). S: Jay Griffin. Hitters: Cameron White (RV) 3-4, 2 2B, Andrew Hill (RV) 2-3, 2 RBI, Hughston Armstrong (RV) 2-4, Gabe Grammar (I) 1-3, HR, 3 RBI, Cullen Dalton (I) 2-3. Recs: Ridge View 6-1, Irmo 3-5. Source: Ridge View.