April 11, 2015
Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score
LAWRENCEVILLE - As the second game of Saturday's doubleheader moved into extra innings, the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team was looking for a spark, and fortunately, it was Marcus McCorkle who delivered it with a leadoff triple to set the stage for a Brady Shoppe walk-off single as GGC split with visiting West Virginia Tech at Grizzly Baseball Complex.
"I thought we competed well all day, but we just didn't have it in the first game," GGC Head Coach Brad Stromdahl said. "We didn't hit well with runners in scoring position, but we were able to bounce back and have a really competitive game two. West Virginia Tech is a good team, and I'm looking forward to trying to win the series tomorrow."
While the 10th inning hits from McCorkle and Shoppe marked the 11th and 12th of the game for the Grizzly offense, it was a season-best pitching performance from Jeremy Holcomb that helped pave the way as the junior, who had not made it out of the sixth this season, pitched into the eighth on Saturday, striking out eight before being pegged for four runs (three earned) on six hits.
"Jeremy threw really, really well," Stromdahl said. "That's what we need from him, and unfortunately he had a hit that was just in-between shortstop and third base and another that was a bloop single over the second baseman that kept him from getting the win. He's why we won this game."
After the Green and Gray surrendered a score in the top of the first, Ty Abbott uncorked his seventh homer of the season in the bottom of the frame as GGC grabbed the 2-1 edge.
Abbott, like McCorkle, ended the game 2-for-4 at the plate as GGC out-hit the visitors 12-8.
GGC (36-8) tacked on another pair of runs in the fourth as Michael Hodorowski and Brian Jacobs singled and doubled, respectively, to put two runners in scoring position. Hodorowski, a junior out of Kennesaw, stole home moments later, and an Arsenio Watlington single made it 4-1.
A fifth-inning error resulted in another score for the Golden Bears (22-17), and a leadoff walk and seeing-eye single in the eighth ultimately came back to haunt Holcomb as reliever Davis Adkins gave up a two-run single to Trevor Lam to tie up the game.
Adkins recorded four outs on the mound before handing things over to Christian Turnipseed, who struck out two of the five batters he faced, earning the win and moving to 3-0 on the season.
A three-run fifth inning proved the difference in the day's first game as GGC fell 7-4 in a seven-inning affair.
Ryan Minteer was dealt just his second loss of the season, dropping to 6-2 after giving up six runs (four earned) on six hits over 4.1 innings. He registered six strikeouts.
McCorkle and Abbott led the GGC assault in the first game as well as each ended with a pair of hits and a run batted in. The Grizzlies actually out-hit the Golden Bears in the game 9-8, but proved unable to string the hits together at the right time, most notably in the bottom of the sixth, where an inning-ending double play helped WVT work out of a bases-loaded jam.
The two teams will square off once again at 1 p.m. on Sunday. GGC, which has never lost a three- or four-game series at Grizzly Baseball Complex, will be facing its third series-deciding game three at home this season after taking two out of three from both Blue Mountain and Talladega in the first two weekends of the year.
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