Clover Hill rallied from a 7-3 deficit to slip past Bridgewater, 8-7, Tuesday night at Buck Bowman Park.
The win moved the Bucks to 5-2 and left them a half game behind Stuarts Draft (now 6-2 after a 2-0 win at Broadway Tuesday) and tied with Montezuma in the RCBL standings.
The victory did not come easily.
After CH starter Justin Hill got an inning-ending double play in the top of the first, the Bucks provided him with a cushion. With two outs, Addison Bowman connected for a solo home run off Reds' righty T.J. Frazier. Dustin Bowman and J.R. Rohrbough followed with consecutive singles, and James Lucas singled up the middle for a 2-0 Clover Hill edge.
Bridgewater trimmed the lead in half in the second, when Kyle Walling smacked a solo home run to right.
But the Bucks went back up by two runs in the third, when Aaron Martin singled, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Rohrbough.
The Reds got a bloop RBI single to right from Tanner Croy in the fourth, but exploded for five runs in the fifth.
Adam Rhodes reached on an error to open the inning, then moved to second when the Bucks misplayed a double play attempt on a grounder from Scott Hearn. Walling followed with his second home run of the game, a three-run shot to left, to give Bridgewater a 5-3 advantage. After a walk to Chad Rhodes and a single from Justin Showalter, Tyler McFarland notched a two-run single to left for a 7-3 lead.
Hill was relieved by righty Chase Hutchinson, who fanned Grattan Shull and Croy, and got Frazier to groundout to end the big inning.
The Bucks wasted no time in coming back. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Addison Bowman reached on a throwing error by Frazier and Dustin Bowman got on board with an infield single. A walk to Rohrbough loaded the bases, before Lucas smacked a two-run double down the right field line. Tyler Bocock followed with a two-run single to tie the game, 7-7. Frazier got Chris Cofer to fly out, before Andrew Weaver doubled, moving Bocock with the go-ahead run to third. But Frazier struck out Drew Easter to keep the score tied.
Hutchinson made sure it stayed that way. He pitched around a walk to Hearn and a single by Walling, before getting a fielder's choice from Chad Rhodes and a strikeout of Showalter to end the threat in the sixth.
After a walk to McFarland and a sacrifice bunt by Shull to open the seventh, Hutchinson fanned Croy and Frazier to keep the score at 7-7.
McFarland replaced Frazier on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and immediately yielded a bad-hop infield single to Bocock. Cofer moved him to second with a bunt, before Frazier could not handle Weaver's groundball at second, allowing the eventual winning run to score.
Hutchinson worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and struck out the side in the ninth to close out the victory.
Hutchinson (5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K) earned the win to move to 2-0. McFarland (2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) took the loss in relief of Frazier (6 IP, 7 R, 6 ER, 13 H, 1 BB, 6 K).
Rohrbough was 3-for-4 with a RBI and Dustin Bowman went 3-for-4 to pace the Bucks at the plate. Also, Lucas was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and Bocock went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
Walling went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs for the Reds, who fell to 1-6.
The Bucks host Elkton Thursday.
