While the rest of the Charleston Riverdogs wore their game-day uniforms, Bryce Ridgway wore jean shorts and his teammate Marcus Jacobs wore basketball shorts, but it didn’t seem to hamper the Riverdogs.

In this evenly matched fourth grade JHawk baseball game, the Riverdogs beat the Carolina Mud Cats, 6-3, at Holcom Park on June 13.

The Riverdogs struggled early in the game. Although they recorded two hits in the first inning, three players struck out to end the inning, leaving a player on both first and second base.

On the defensive end, they also had a few misques.

Riverdog Jose Rodriquez said he knew that he and his teammates needed to work on their fielding.

“Sometimes when the kids go out, they’re really excited to get the ball and then they’ll miss it,” he said.

The leadoff batter for the Mud Cats, Legend Coonfield, took advantage of the poor fielding and scored easily from second base off of a hit by his teammate Tayler Sawyer. Sawyer also made it to home plate to give his team the 2-0 lead.

Needing to get somethign going, Jacobs (basketball shorts and all) stepped up to leadoff the second inning.

The Charleston Riverdogs line-up to slap hands with the Carolina Mud Cats on June 13 at Holcom Park. After both teams were tied throughout the third inning the Riverdogs broke through for the victory 6-3.

Jacobs gave his team the spark they needed: hitting an inside-the-park homerun as all of his teammates in the dugout peeked through the fence cheering him on as he rounded the bases.

“The boys had a good, fun time,” Riverdog head coach Joe Rodriquez said.

In the same inning, Riverdog Maurice Jacobs fed off his team’s energy and hit a triple to centerfield. As the ball was been thrown to the pitcher, an error was made and the Mud Cats scrambled to get the ball. It was too late because Maurice already had made it home.

Another costly error at the top of the second again hurt the Mud Cats. Riverdog Victor Torres hit a ball and stretched out to second base. Mud Cat Stephen Fulton would have tagged him out, but Fulton couldn’t handle the ball and tallied an error instead. Thus, the Riverdogs took the 3-2.

The Riverdogs’ defense continued along the same lines as their offense. Riverdog pitcher Taylor Krejci and the rest of the team did not allowed the Mud Cats to record a hit in the bottom of the second.

But in the third, the Riverdogs didn’t score and the Mud cats did, evening the score at 3-all.

“We fell apart in the fourth inning.” Mud Cat assistant coach Dan Coonfield said.

That they did, as the Riverdogs scored three runs in the top of the fourth. The Mud Cats didn’t have an answer as they had one hit in the bottom of the fourth.

“We have to give it to the other team, they had some good hits,” Coonfield said