WEDDINGTON, N.C. — Steady pitching and early scoring kept Marvin Ridge High School’s baseball team on pace this week to do something they have not done in six years.
The Marvin Ridge Mavericks piled up 24 runs in their three games against Weddington and defeated the Warriors, 12-4, on the road Thursday, April 17 to win a share of the Southern Carolina Conference regular season title.
This is the second time since 2019 that Marvin Ridge did it under head coach Trey Putman. Marvin Ridge shares the title with Cuthbertson with both teams finishing the regular season with a 9-3 conference record.
Marvin Ridge improved to 15-6 overall and Weddington dropped to 14-7 overall.
“It’s a testament of the work that they put in,” said Marvin Ridge coach Trey Putman. “They work hard every day. They deserve this and I love them.”
Three different pitchers appeared in each of the three games in the Weddington series. Junior Jackson Mazur won the first game while junior Colin Slep won the second game.
Senior Drew Flecther won the third game Thursday and was unfazed on the mound. Fletcher struck out four batters and allowed five hits on the evening.
“Multiple times what I’ll hear in my ear is ‘Just throw it down the middle or just put it in the zone, let your team work,” Fletcher said. “It reminds you it is a team sport. Weddington is obviously a good team, but we really showed we were the better team this week.
“We knew we were a better team, and this was a good test for us, coming into the spring break tournament, and conference tournament. It helped us deal with pressure of facing good arms.”
Senior Luke St. John was Fletcher’s catcher in the third game and helped keep him calm under pressure.
“I was just telling him to trust his stuff,” St. John said. “He’s got really good pitchers and he’s one of the best pitchers in our conference. But yeah, I just had to let him know, ‘Your stuff will beat them, and then we’ll get out of this with a W.”
Offensively, Marvin Ridge scored eight runs in the third inning to prevent Weddington from climbing back into the game.
St. John had three RBIs and Fletcher had two RBIs. Senior Riley Matthews tallied two RBIs for the Mavericks.
Four Weddington players had an RBI each — seniors Jacob Yanz, Max Luzarraga, Cooper Gandossy, and Liam Johnson.
Marvin Ridge and Weddington will both play in the Nation Ford High School spring break baseball tournament next week.
The Mavericks will play Rock Hill on April 21, Charlotte Catholic on April 22, and Nation Ford on April 23.
The Weddington Warriors will play Charlotte Catholic on April 21, Nation Ford on April 22, and Andrew Jackson on April 23.
Putman, who felt encouraged with his team’s quick turnaround, said “with a lot of that we have, we always feel like we could have a big inning at any point going into a game.”
“If we’ve got a good plan, we feel like we can have big innings in any game that we play,” he said.
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