Jiggy Ray’s got jiggy with it from the opening inning of an 11-2 victory over North East Community Credit Union Friday evening at Jim Ensor Field.
Jiggy Ray scored seven first-inning runs with the help of six free passes from NECCU starter Dillon Woodby. Jiggy Ray’s got consecutive singles from Clay Hopland, Caleb Royston and Josiah Swanson after a lead-off walk to Isaac Hurley to grab an early 2-0 lead.
Luke Whaley also drew a walk to load the bases, and one out later, Jackson Taylor doubled in two more runners for a 4-0 Jiggy Ray advantage. From there, three straight walks forced home three more runs to put NECCU in a big deficit.
Royston pitched three and two-thirds innings for Jiggy Ray (13-4), giving up one run on two hits. He struck out two and walked four, and also hit one batter.
“I don’t know if he ran out of gas or they got dialed in,” Jiggy Ray manager Travis Royston said. “They have a good team over there, and we haven’t played in a week. We were a little rusty, but they came together and played well.”
Ray’s opened an11-0 lead with four runs in the top of the third, with Dillon Street leading off with a base hit to center followed by Levi Taylor and Hurley both being hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs.
A fielder’s choice grounder brought home one run and moved the runners to second and third and a two base hit from Royston brought home two runs. He scored on a wild pitch as Woodby fanned Swanson, but that was the last hitter he faced.
Woodby pitched two and two-thirds innings, striking out three but walking six before Daniel Sheryl came on in relief. He pitched one and a third frames, giving up no runs on two hits, and he struck out two.
NECCU got a run in the third when Dillon McDuffie walked and Jose Mayse singled to put runners on first and second. Billy Woody – borrowed from Cline Holder – walked to load the bases, and T.J. Thomas’ tapper to no man’s land between the pitcher and third baseman brought home McDuffie to break the shutout bid.
Woodby also had an RBI single in the fourth after walks to McDuffie and Mayse for the final tally of the contest.
“These kids hustle and work hard day in and day out,” Royston said. “They work together as a team. We started out making some mistakes that hurt us but as the season has gone along we kind of caught our secondwind at the end of the season.”
For Jiggy Ray, Royston was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs, while Taylor was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs batted in. Mayse, Thomas and Woodby each had hits for NECCU.