Watch: JR Ritchie, Bainbridge's projected high-round MLB draft pick, responds to hecklers with deep home run
BONNEY LAKE, Wash. — J.R. Ritchie did more than enough to send Bainbridge to its first WIAA Class 3A regional round in four seasons on Saturday.
Including silence a sea of trolls.
Ritchie, a UCLA pledge and MLB Draft prospect projected as high as the first round, struck out 12 and gave up four hits, including his first two home runs since he was a freshman, in a complete game effort in a 7-2 district tournament win over 3A Pierce County League champion Bonney Lake.
When opposing fans jeered, heckled and hurled insults his way, he responded in kind with a three-run home run over the left field fence.
Any time Ritchie starts, he attracts a gallery of scouts, video cameras and radar guns. They come to see his fastball, which touches 97 miles per hour, and his off-speed pitches that have helped him grow into the top Washington prospect in the class of 2022 for the last three years.
(MORE: Coverage of JR Ritchie's high school career)
At Saturday's Class 3A West Central District tournament opener, fans hurled comments his way as he stepped up to the plate with two outs left in the sixth inning and Bainbridge up 2-1.
Each time he took a cut in the count, the fans seemed to become more animated. Some cast aspersions on his draft buzz, and named specific teams in the process.
"Come on, Ritchie, hit a ball!" one yelled.
"This guy's a safety hazard!' another chirped after a foul ball.
Then came Ritchie's last laugh.
He blasted a hanging slider from Bonney Lake relief pitcher Mason Wright over the left-center field wall, sending three runs in and blowing the game open in favor of the Spartans, the SBLive's No. 2 Class 3A team in the state.
"Everybody knows who he is - and everybody wants to kind of heckle him and all of that stuff," Bainbridge baseball coach Geoff Brown said Saturday. "The best part about it is ... that he turns and smiles, and says, 'Here we go!' "
Watch video of the entire at-bat at the top of the page.
