March 9, 2014
GGC 21, St. Francis 2
The Georgia Gwinnett baseball team racked up 21 runs on 18 hits and slugged its way to the team’s 14th-straight victory with a 21-2 win against St. Francis (Ind.) on Saturday night at the Grizzly Baseball Complex.
Jereid Woods led all players with three hits on the night, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored with two walks. Five Grizzlies had a multi-hit game as GGC, which entered the weekend as the NAIA’s highest scoring team, scored 20-plus runs for the second time this year.
Seven Cougar errors helped the Grizzlies (20-3) win their 20th game of the season while St. Francis fell to 1-11 with the defeat.
Starter Brandon MacKinnon improved to 3-0, striking out seven batters and scattering six hits and a run over five innings.
Jonathan Spitler, Jovanni Cruz, Tyler Oglesby and Ryan Turner each tossed one inning of relief for GGC.
The Grizzlies jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Jake Fields singled, stole second and came home on an RBI single by Christian Van Camp. Woods walked and after a double steal, Van Camp came home on a wild pitch. Fidanza scored Woods on an RBI single and Kyle Norton came home as a steal forced an errant throw. Finally, an RBI infield single from Zach Alvord scored pinch runner Phillip Bates.
The Cougars pushed across a run with a two-out single in the top of the third, but GGC added to its lead with a string of two-out hits in the bottom of the inning. Woods delivered a two-out double, and Kyle Norton and John Fidanza followed with singles to make it 8-1.
The Grizzlies plated three more runs in the sixth. One came home on a double-steal that produced a throw into left field and an RBI groundout by William Paschal followed to make it 10-1. Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Sloan Strickland was hit by a pitch to drive in another run.
The Cougars tallied one score in the top of the seventh.
Georgia Gwinnett added eight more runs in the bottom of the inning, sending 14 total batters to the plate and using the help of four St. Francis errors.
The final two scores came home in the eighth inning.
The series wraps up Sunday at 2 p.m. with a single game in Lawrenceville.
