Oct. 22, 2015
Nashville, Tenn. – The Black team used an extra-inning grand slam from Ro Coleman and a strong relief outing from freshman Chandler Day to win the series opener 8-3 Thursday night at Hawkins Field.
Extra innings in the Black & Gold Series is settled with a shootout with the inning starting with the bases loaded and one out. Coleman took advantage of the situation on the very first pitch of the eighth inning, clubbing a grand slam over the right field wall to put the Black team in front for good. Two batters later Tyler Green padded the lead with a RBI-single to center field off freshman Donny Everett.
Day finished off the victory in fashion in the bottom of the inning, freezing fellow freshmen Alonzo Jones and Stephen Scott with strikeouts to end the game and earn the win. The strikeouts closed out an impressive night for the right-hander, who allowed one run on one hit with seven strikeouts across four innings.
The Gold team struck first in the first inning thanks to a leadoff triple from Jeren Kendall and a clutch, two-out single from Kyle Smith. The Black team bounced back to take the lead in the third on back-to-back doubles from Will Toffey and Karl Ellison. The lead was short-lived, however, with the Gold team drawing even on a RBI-single from Scott to score Kiambu Fentress, who led off the inning with a double.
The two teams remained tied until the fifth when the Black team manufactured a run without the benefit of a hit. Gold starter Ben Bowden issued a leadoff walk to Walker Grisanti to end his night. Reliever Brendan Spagnuolo entered and recorded a quick out before issuing two straight walks. Toffey took care of business with a sacrifice fly to right field to reclaim the lead. The Gold team manufactured a run of their own in the sixth to tie the game. Smith drew a leadoff walk and worked his way around to score on a Day wild pitch with two outs.
Toffey led all hitters with two hits in the game with the two teams combining for six extra-base hits. Kyle Wright started for the Black team and allowed two runs on seven hits with no walks and six strikeouts over 3.2 innings. Bowden allowed three runs on two hits with three strikeouts over four-plus innings.
The two teams square off tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. with the Black team serving as the home team. Matt Ruppenthal gets the nod for Black against Gold’s Jordan Sheffield.
