Pioneer Baseball Team Advances to Region

Gavin Rienichie strokes a single to center field during East Ridge’s District 6 A/AA loss to HIxson on Wednesday at the Wildcats’ field.

Despite their shutout loss to Hixson Wednesday afternoon, the Pioneers are headed to the Region 3 AA High School Baseball Tournament next week.

It is believed to be East Ridge’s first trip to the regions since 1996. As runner-up in the District 6 A/AA, the Pioneers (9-12) will travel to either Loudon or Sequoyah next Monday for its region opener.

“I’m very proud of this team,” said second-year head coach Randall Boldin. “They’ve come a very long way.”

After hammering Central, 13-3, on Monday to advance out of the loser’s bracket to Wednesday’s finals, East Ridge ran into Hixson’s Tanner Moylan, one of the league’s best pitchers. Moylan (6-1) allowed only two hits in blanking East Ridge, 10-0 in five innings.

East Ridge’s hits came courtesy of Gavin Rienichie in the third inning, a liner to center, and Chris Callaham’s fourth-inning single.

Jesse Jones, winless on the season, gave up six hits to Hixson (25-6).

East Ridge pitcher Jesse Jones delivers to the plate during the Pioneers’ loss to Hixson in the District 6 A/AA Tournament. Despite the loss, East Ridge will advance to the Region 3 AA Tournament for the first time in a generation.

Coach Boldin said the loss was characteristic of how his young team faltered earlier this year in the regular season: lack of hitting, little support for the pitcher and mental errors.

Boldin said after the game that his team needs to regroup. “Their hopes are up,” he said. “Their spirits are up. We’ve got a region game coming up.”

Rienichie and Jones were named to the All Tournament Team.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.