Gold rallies by Black to claim series

Nov. 19, 2014

The Gold team rallied for six runs in the eighth inning to take the series with an 11-7 win over the Black team Wednesday afternoon at Hawkins Field.

The two teams battled back and forth through the first seven innings with the Black team holding the lead throughout until the fateful eighth. The inning opened with Joey Mundy reaching base on a Nolan Rogers’ throwing error and was followed by singles from Aubrey McCarty and Drake Parker to load the bases. Ro Coleman worked a bases loaded walk off reliever Ben Bowden, who followed with another walk to Dansby Swanson to force in the tying run. Bryan Reynolds’ fly ball to center field was deep enough to score Parker from third to give the Gold team their first lead of the game. That chased Bowden from the game and brought in lefty Philip Pfeifer, who struck out Zander Wiel for the second out of the inning. Freshman Will Toffey extended the inning, however, with a walk to load the bases and set up Karl Ellison. The sophomore catcher delivered the knock out punch with a double into the left field corner to clear the bases and push the Gold lead to four runs.

Carson Fulmer entered in the ninth inning and quickly closed out the win and the series for the Gold squad.

The Black team opened the game flexing their muscles with two home runs in the first three innings. Tyler Green roped a two-run shot into the center field bleachers in the first and Nolan Rogers followed with a solo shot off the top of the bleachers in right field in the third for a 3-0 lead. After the Gold team closed within a run in the fourth, Rhett Wiseman tripled in a run and scored on a passed ball to push the Black lead back to three runs in the fifth. Wiseman later added a RBI-double and finished the game 3-for-4 and the series 7-for-13.

The Gold team pounded out 13 hits with eight of the nine players in the lineup registering at least one hit. Ellison led the way with three hits in the win with Reynolds and Toffey adding two each. Swanson added three runs and a double while Reynolds two hits were both doubles. Green went 2-for-4 with his two-run homer for the Black team. Freshmen Jeren Kendall and Toffey each had doubles for their respective teams.

Hayden Stone picked up the win in relief for the Gold team working 1.2 innings out of the pen. Bowden was pinned with the loss allowing six runs, three earned, on four hits over 1.1 innings. John Kilichowski started for the Gold team allowing three runs on two hits with five strikeouts.

The Commodores are set to depart for the Dominican Republic Saturday where the team will play seven games against Dominican competition. Check vucommodores.com for updates from the trip.