Cleveland baseball shuts out Corinth Holders on Ryan Flores’ 2-hitter
Good pitching, strong defense and an early jolt of good hitting proved to be an ample combination for the Cleveland baseball team as the Rams remained atop the Two Rivers 3A Conference with a 6-0 victory over host Corinth Holders on Wednesday.
Ryan Flores tossed a two-hitter and Landry Moore drove in three runs as Cleveland (16-2, 5-0) – the No. 4 team in The News & Observer’s rankings – denied the Pirates (11-5, 4-2) in their bid to take over the conference lead.
The Rams scored two runs in the first, highlighted by an RBI double from Moore, then added three more runs in the second inning with the big blow a two-run single by Moore to build an early 5-0 lead.
Cleveland also helped itself defensively, turning two double plays and making several other nice defensive plays to keep Corinth Holders from making any significant challenge.
“I told them we’re in the driver’s seat, but we’re only halfway to the end of the race,” Cleveland coach Jamie Lee said. “We can’t let off the gas, we have to keep the pedal on the metal.”
Corinth Holders starter Connor Bass took the loss, failing to last the second inning. He allowed four runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Turning point
With runners on second and third with one out in the second inning, Moore hit a sharp grounder past Corinth Holders second baseman Will Jones to score both D.J. Witmer and Flores for a 4-0 lead.
“It was big, we knew if we got some runs early, with Ryan pitching, that we’d have some success,” Moore said. “We wanted to get him a lead and let him work with it.”
They said it
“We didn’t play very well,” Corinth Holders coach Adam Weaver said. “With Flores on the mound, we have to compete better. Tonight, I don’t feel like we competed. We got beat offensively, defensviely, and on the mound. When you lose those phases of the game the results aren’t going to be good.”
Three to know
Ryan Flores, Cleveland: The left-hander no-hit Smithfield-Selma in a 10-0 on April 5 and was sharp again against the Pirates, allowing only an infield single by Khalil Hodge in the second inning and single to left by Logan Whitley in the fifth inning. “My fastball and curveball, I was able to get them over for strikes a lot. I was just trying to get ahead and stay ahead.”
Landry Moore, Cleveland: The second baseman had a team-high three hits for the Rams.
D.J. Witmer, Cleveland: Had a pair of hits and scored two runs.
By the numbers
4: The number of errors committed by Corinth Holders.
7: Hits tallied by Cleveland over the first two innings. The Rams had 12 hits in the game.
This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Cleveland baseball shuts out Corinth Holders on Ryan Flores’ 2-hitter."