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Tough stretch continues for Burgin

Arpan Dixit
Herald Staff
sports@harrodsburgherald.com

After winning their first four games of the season, the Burgin Bulldogs (4-5) baseball team dropped their sixth straight game at the hands of the Frankfort Christian Royals  (0-3), by a final score of 8-1 on Saturday, April 28.

It was a special day at Burgin. Mark Darland, a former coach in the Burgin and Mercer County area who was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, was honored before the game in an emotional ceremony.

The Bulldogs defeated the Royals earlier this season, 7-6.

Seventh grader Hunter Reed took the loss for Burgin, pitching two innings, giving up five runs on two hits, with three walks and one strikeout.

Seventh grader Jacob Qualls came in to relieve Reed, pitching four innings, giving up one run on two hits, with five walks and six strikeouts. His brother, freshman Jackson Qualls, also pitched an inning in relief, giving up two runs on two hits, with one walk and one strikeout.

Bailey Ridderikhoff earned the win for Frankfort Christian, pitching five and two-third innings, giving up one run on three hits, with one walk and twelve strikeouts. Caleb Foster relieved Ridderikhoff in the fifth inning, pitching one and one-third innings, giving up no runs and hits, with one walk and one strikeout.

“I thought their pitcher did a great job of getting ahead in the count. We have to do a better job of going the other way at the plate. When a pitcher is doing a great job of throwing like he did, you have to adjust and hit the ball where it’s pitched,” said Head Coach Donnie Edwards. “Our pitchers just fell behind in the count way too much. We had a lot of walks to be able to overcome any deficit.”

Burgin scored their only run of the game on a Reed single in the bottom half of the third inning, scoring junior Matthew Kirkpatrick.

Frankfort Christian’s Ben Foster had a game-high two RBIs and Hudson Uebel, Matthew Tingle and Ty Hancock had one RBI each. The other two runs were scored on errors by Burgin.

Kirkpatrick led Burgin with two hits.

The Bulldogs had five errors on the day, compared to only one by the Royals.

Edwards has said before that building this team will be a process.

“Our guys are young and there are in-game adjustments that have to be made. We will get better at that with more work and experience,” he said. “The great thing about this game is tomorrow is a new day to get better.”

The loss drops Burgin to 4-6 on the season. The win for Frankfort Christian is their first of the season.

The Bulldogs will be back on the diamond today, Thursday, May 3, when they host Paris at 5:45 p.m.

(W) – Riderikhoff (5.2 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 ER, 12 SO, 1 BB)

(L) – Reed (2.0 IP, 5 R, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 SO, 3 BB)

HITS – Kirkpatrick 2, Reed 1.

RBI – Reed 1.

Seventh grader Jacob Qualls throws to the cut-off man during Burgin’s loss to Frankfort Christian on Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Arpan Dixit)

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