GC Baseball: Krayton Ritchie opens playoffs with one-hitter for Kerens
May 3—BULLARD — Krayton Ritchie, coming off a perfect game, opened the Class 2A playoffs for Kerens with an oh-so-close replica Thursday night.
Nope, Krayton wasn't perfect. But he was pretty close.
He gave up a single while destroying the Price Carlisle lineup in a 5-0 victory to start what everyone at Kerens is hoping will be a magnificent run in the playoffs. The Bobcats reached the Region Quarterfinals last year.
Krayton is just half of the best 1-2 punch on the mound in the state 2A playoffs. His twin brother Kannon is also crazy good. Last year the Ritchie Twins started the playoffs with back-to-back no-hitters.
This season the Ritchie Twins are a combined 18-3 and both have ERA's below one run. Kannon has allowed just two earned runs all year and has an 0.24 ERA. Krayton's ERA is 0.74. They have combined to strike out 187 batters.
Kannon is scheduled to pitch Friday in Game 2 of the best-of-three Bi-District series against Price Carlisle back at Bullard Brookhill High School, where the entire Carlisle team is probably wondering "What did we do to deserve this?"
Krayton has allowed just five earned runs in 11 appearances this year and has an 0.74 ERA with 86 Ks in 41.1 innings and an 8-3 record with all the losses coming early.
Krayton's perfect game against Cross Roads at the end of the regular season helped make sure the Bobcats went 14-0 in district to prepare for the playoffs He needed 86 pitches, averaging about four pitches an inning, to nail down a perfect game against Cross Roads, and was all but unhittable Thursday.
He did give up one single and a couple of walks while striking out 13 (that's 29 Ks in his last two starts. The victory was the 15th in a row for the Bobcats and 14 of those were shutouts.
Kerens hasn't given up a run since March 19 when Neches, the only district team to find the plate against Kerens, scored two runs in an 11-2 loss against the Bobcats. No one has scored on Kerens or the Ritchie Twins since.
The Bobcats made the most out of six hits Thursday, scoring a run in the first and second innings, scoring twice in the third and bringing home another run in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.
Kannon had an RBI and Matt Rickard went 2-for-3, scored a run and drove in a run and Lane Lynch and Kooper Hill had RBI singles. Andy Conklin, Adrian Solis, JJ Hightower, Rickard and courtesy runner Lionel Escobar all scored for Kerens.
