Polk County's Mason Beiler celebrates with Alex Tipton after his two-run homer in Friday's game

Big inning powers R-S Central past Polk County

April 22, 2023

An eight-run fourth inning helped propel R-S Central to a 12-2 victory over Polk County in a Mountain Foothills 7 Conference matchup Friday at The Bottoms.

The Hilltoppers improved to 17-2 overall, 8-2 in conference play. The Wolverines are now 7-10, 1-7.

How it happened: R-S put together a two-out rally in the second inning, taking advantage of two Polk errors and a hit batter to score both runs without a hit.

Polk County answered in the bottom of the third. Karson Scruggs singled before Mason Beiler lofted a high fly ball to left-center field that landed on top of the fence and skipped over, that blast evening the game at 2-2.

But the proverbial wheels came off for Polk in the fourth. The Hilltoppers got a three-run homer from Isaiah Hipp with one out, a two-run double from Hayden Wheeler and kept adding to the total, eventually building a 10-2 advantage.

R-S added lone runs in the fifth and sixth innings to end the game after six by run rule.

Polk County’s Alex Perry applies a tag to R-S Central’s Tray Shearer during the fourth inning of Friday’s game. Shearer was ruled safe, though, and later scored on Isaiah Hipp’s three-run homer

At the plate: R-S starter Kaden Smith pitched five innings and held Polk to two hits, those the Scruggs single and Beiler homer in the third. He struck out five and walked three. Wheeler fanned two in an inning of relief.

Next up: It gets no easier for the Wolverines as East Rutherford, currently the top team in the 2A West RPI ratings, visits The Bottoms on Tuesday.