Espinoza Leads Fairfield 19U Baseball Past Ridgefield

Anthony Espinoza delivers a pitch during Tuesday's game

Fairfield 19U defeated Ridgefield 6-1 on Tuesday afternoon at Kiwanis Field in Fairfield. Anthony Espinoza came up big with his arm and his bat. 

On the mound, he threw four innings, allowing one unearned run on one hit, while striking out four and walking two. The only hit was an infield single on a slow roller to third base. 

At the plate, Espinoza went two-for-three, including a two-run double in the first inning which proved to be all he and Fairfield needed. 

Christian Homa singled to lead off the game. Jack Pierce then followed up with a single of his own. Following a walk to Ryan Cowles to load the bases, that set up Espinoza. He drove the first pitch he saw over the left fielders head to bring in Homa and Pierce. 

Leading 2-0, Fairfield tacked on in the third. Cowles singed to left with one out and Espinoza followed up with a single to right and Cowles moved to third on the throw. Blake Benway then drove a sacrifice fly to deep center field to bring in Cowles and increase the lead to 3-0. 

Ridgefield got on the board in the fourth thanks to a hit, a couple walks and a couple of errors. 

Josh Wittenberger came out of the bullpen for Fairfield and threw three scoreless innings to close out the win He allowed one hit and one walk, while striking out six. 

Fairfield blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth. Benway walked to lead off the inning. Joey D'Elia then tippled to deep right-center field to bring in Alex Wiggetman, who had pinch-run for Benway. Jack Varcoe then followed that up with a single to bring in D'Elia and cap the scoring. 

Fairfield improves to 7-1 in their division and 16-1 overall. They will be back in action on Wednesday in Ridgefield at 5:30 at Ciccuoli Field. They will return to Kiwanis on Thursday at 5:45 to host Ridgefield.