Coal Cats open the 2025 campaign with road series victory against Elizabethton

 By Ben Anderson

    The Tri-State Coal Cats won the battle against mother nature to start the 2025 campaign, winning two of three games against the Elizabethton River Riders in Appalachian League baseball action at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark. 

    

    In game one, the Coal Cats defeated the River Riders 6-4. Tri-State jumped early, taking a 60-1 lead through the top of the sixth inning. The Coal Cats racked up 10 hits, including six doubles. Tri-State got the scoring started in the third inning, with Sam Winsett driving in the first run on an RBI Single. The offense continued its roar, scoring five runs across the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. 

    

    Tri-State’s starting pitcher, Ryan Brown created the early spark for the Coal Cats, delivering three strikeouts while allowing just two hits. Mason Child picked up the win in relief, allowing one run on one hit and two walks while striking out two. 

    

    Winsett was 2 for 5 with two runs batted in. Sal Mineo went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored. 

Tri-State 001 011 300 – 6 10 0

Elizabethton 000 100 120 – 4 5 2 

    Friday is when mother nature decided to arrive at around an hour into the contest. The game was suspended till Saturday to be part of a double-header due to lighting. 

    The River Riders led 4-0 in the top of the third inning when lighting hit. 

    Once the teams took the field on Saturday, the Coal Cats bats immediately got going as Ryan Maggy hit a 2-run RBI single scoring Winsett and Chandler Murray to cut the deficit in half. 

    The River Riders answered back in the bottom of the frame scoring 3 runs with a 2-run RBI Single from Jordan Crosland, and an RBI Double from Brady Thompson. 

    Tri-State quickly responded for the second inning in a row as star returnee Michael Rodriguez would knock in an RBI Single to score Mineo. 

    Despite the scoring effort from the Coal Cats, they couldn’t close the gap as Elizabethton tacked on insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Tri-State would score two more runs in the top of the 9th.

    Leading the way for the Coal Cats was Rodriguez and Maggy who combined for six hits and four RBI. 

    Brayden Thomas took the loss going two innings and allowing 2 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned runs, 6 walks while earning 3 strikeouts. 

Tri-State 002 100 002 – 5 13 2

Elizabethton 133 001 10x – 9 11 1

    The Coal Cats turned things around in the rubber match of the series, a seven-inning contest due to the double-header. 

    Tri-State had its best pitching performance of the weekend out of its starter as Marshall’s Kenyon Collins struck out 10 batters across four scoreless innings, including six consecutive strikeouts between the second and third innings. 

    Collins, one of the returnees for the Coal Cats this season, pitched 29 1/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA last season. 

    The Coal Cats offense provided the support for Collins, in the third inning with a 2-run RBI single from Murray that scored Luke Kosko and Winsett. Tri-State added two more runs in the fifth, including an RBI from Maggy and a run scored on a wild pitched. Kosko, who went 3-for-4, concluded the scoring in the seventh with a single that drove in Jorge Gonzalez-Febo. 

    Relievers Tucker DeLisle and Carlos Jazmin completed the shutout, combining for three scoreless innings. 

Tri-State 002 020 1xx – 5 9 0

Elizabethton 000 000 0xx 00 0 3 0 

    The Coal Cats finished the weekend 2-1 and welcome the Pulaski River Turtles in its home opener at Jack Cook Field on Monday in game one of a seven-game homestretch.