Feb. 21, 2013
GGC 6, Reinhardt 5
Junior Pat Long belted three hits and junior Sloan Strickland drove in a pair of runs as the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team opened up an early led before holding on late in a 6-5 win on Thursday at Reinhardt University in Waleska, Ga.
The series-opening win pushes the Grizzlies to 7-1 on their inaugural year and drops the Eagles to 4-6. The teams are slated to wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Sunday.
Left-hander Drew Riley allowed just one unearned run over 5.0 innings on the mound for GGC, striking out five and allowing only three hits.
The Grizzlies raced out to a 5-0 lead in the fourth inning but with just a two-run advantage entering the ninth, freshman Austin Smith came on to record his second save of the year.
“This was a great team win today that our club pulled out against a tough Reinhardt squad,” said GGC head coach Brad Stromdahl. “Drew Riley gave us a terrific start and our pitching staff did a great job. We had one big play by Christian Van Camp stretching out an extra base that proved to be the difference today.”
The Grizzlies started the scoring early as Robbie Payne drove in Antonio Allen with an RBI single in the first inning. Long followed with an RBI double to bring home Payne as GGC went up 2-0.
A three-run fourth inning padded the lead. Three straight singles began the inning and Phillip Bates made it 3-0 by driving in pinch runner Eli Green. Strickland added a two-run single through the right side to plate Bates and Christian Van Camp, who had singled and reached third.
Reinhardt tallied a single run in the bottom of the inning and drew within one after a three-run sixth.
The Grizzlies stemmed the momentum with an insurance run in the seventh, capitalizing on a fielding error to make it 6-4.
Georgia Gwinnett relievers Tyler Carpenter and Dreyvis Perez combined to preserve a two-run lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Eagles pushed across a run on an RBI groundout in the final inning, but Smith nailed down the save and the one-run win.
The Grizzlies look to resume their win streak Sunday as the doubleheader at Reinhardt is set to begin at 2 p.m.
