Oct. 23, 2015
Nashville, Tenn. – The Gold team held off a late rally from the Black team to even the series at a game apiece with a 6-5 victory at Hawkins Field on Friday.
The Gold squad looked to be cruising to victory with two outs in the seventh inning and a two-run lead, but Ro Coleman quickly changed that. For the second night in a row the junior blasted a game-changing home run, this time pulling a pitch from the right side of the plate down the left field line and off the scoreboard to tie the game. Coleman belted a game-winning grand slam in the series opener last night from the left side of the plate.
Coleman’s homer sent the game to extra innings with the game going to a shootout, loading the bases with one out to start the inning. In the top of the eighth, Ethan Paul put the Gold team in front to stay leading off the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Kiambu Fentress. Freshman Patrick Raby finished off the win punching out both batters he faced with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to seal the deal.
The Black team struck first right out of the gate with Bryan Reynolds taking Jordan Sheffield out of the yard in the first at-bat of the game. Freshman Connor Kaiser pushed the Black lead to two runs with a big two-out, RBI-single in the second inning. The Gold squad roared back with a mammoth Kyle Smith two-run homer to tie the game in the third. The Gold team pushed to the front in the fourth thanks to back-to-back walks to open the inning. Jeren Kendall’s bunt single loaded the bases and ended freshman Evan Steele’s outing. Collin Snider looked to have the Black team out of the jam with consecutive strikeouts before Jason Delay singled up the middle to score two runs.
Ryan Johnson earned the win despite allowing the home run to Coleman in the seventh inning. The lefty gave up two runs on two hits with three strikeouts over 2.2 innings. Joey Abraham was the tough-luck loser allowing the run in the eighth inning. Sheffield allowed three runs on three hits with three strikeouts over 4.1 innings for the Gold team. Matt Ruppenthal earned the start for the Black team and allowed two runs on six hits over three innings.
Reynolds, Delay and Ethan Paul all had two hits in the game with both of Reynolds’ hits going for extra bases.
The two teams take tomorrow off and resume the series Sunday at noon at Hawkins Field.
