March 9, 2014
GGC 15, St. Francis 9
Senior Zach Alvord homered and tripled Sunday to lead the Grizzly attack in the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team’s 15th-straight win, a 15-9 series-sweeping victory over St. Francis (Ind.) at the Grizzly Baseball Complex.
Alvord scored a game-high three runs while Sloan Strickland belted three hits and Christian Van Camp had three RBIs.
Georgia Gwinnett moved to 21-3 overall while St. Francis dropped to 1-12. Each team racked up 13 hits in the game as GGC finally pushed away with a five-run eighth inning.
Starter Sheldon Connor improved to 3-0 and was the first of eight pitchers to enter the game for GGC.
Alvord launched his first home run of the year to start the Grizzly scoring in the first inning. Robbie Payne doubled and Strickland brought him home with a single to left. William Paschal belted a two-run single and John Fidanza later singled him home to make it 5-0 GGC.
Van Camp led off the third inning with a solo home run down the right field line, his second of the year.
Back-to-back doubles brought home the Cougars’ first run in the fourth inning, and USF made a game of it with a four-run fifth inning, with GGC using an inning-ending double play tag at the plate to keep the Cougars from tying it.
The Grizzlies responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by an RBI triple to right-center from Alvord.
The Cougars refused to go down quietly and added four runs on four hits in the seventh inning.
Jonathan Spitler helped keep GGC in front with a scoreless eighth inning, and the Grizzlies padded their lead with a five-run bottom of the eighth. Payne, Van Camp and Fields all drove in runs as GGC never allowed USF to complete their comeback bid.
Ryan Turner finished off the game with a scoreless ninth inning.
