LAWRENCEVILLE- A pair of five-run innings and a strong start from senior right-hander Alex Roberts powered the top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett baseball team to an 11-2 win over Ashford (Iowa) in the opening game of the 2015 Association of Independent Institutions Baseball Championship tournament on Saturday in Lawrenceville.
Game 1- No. 1 Georgia Gwinnett 11, No. 6 Ashford 2
The Grizzlies (44-10), who earned the top seed in the double-elimination event, advance to Sunday afternoon's 3:30 p.m. winner's bracket contest.
Roberts went 7.0 innings on the mound, allowing just a single unearned run and striking out six with one walk. He surrendered 11 hits in the contest but time and again pitched out of potential trouble, helping to strand 13 Saints baserunners in the contest.
The Grizzlies broke open a tight contest with a five-run fifth, then padded their lead with five runs in the eighth inning. The lone scores for Ashford (22-22) came in the sixth and ninth.
Seven different GGC players produced a multi-hit effort, led by three hits apiece from Arsenio Watlington and Ernesto Vazquez. Ty Abbott and Jereid Woods each drove in three runs for GGC.
The Grizzlies took advantage of an outfield error to plate the game's first run in the bottom of the fourth. With Kyler Timmerman on first and Michael Hodorowski dropping a single near the right field line, Timmerman took third on an outfield bobble and scored with the next batter as Woods belted a sacrifice fly.
Four hits and a pair of Ashford errors led to a five-run fifth for the Grizzlies. Abbott singled home Vazquez from third base for a 2-0 GGC lead, an error at second base plated two more, then a two-run single from Woods made it 6-0.
Roberts surrendered an unearned run in the Ashford sixth, but stranded the bases loaded to keep GGC well in front by striking out Tanner Courtney on a full count with two outs.
A pair of singles and a hit batsman loaded the bases again for Ashford in the eighth, but reliever Davis Adkins recorded two strikeouts and induced a groundout as the GGC staff kept the Saints at a distance once more.
A string of singles in the Grizzly eighth padded the lead, with Brady Shoppe, Abbott, William Paschal and Hodorowski all producing RBI base-knocks.
Reliever Jovanni Cruz finished the game on the mound for GGC, sealing the 30th home win of the year.
Game 2- No. 2 Cal State San Marcos 3, No. 5 West Virginia Tech 1
Cal State San Marcos junior hurler Emilio Esquibel fired a complete-game one-hit effort, needing just 84 pitches to go the distance in leading the second-seeded Cougars to a 3-1 victory in Saturday's Game 2.
A seventh-inning home run by Denny Vigo was the difference in the 1 hour and 29 minute contest, as the two-run blast stood as the winning margin.
West Virginia Tech got out to an early lead in the top of the first inning with an RBI double from Xavier Barriere, but it would be the only hit of the game surrendered by Esquibel (11-1).
An RBI single through the left side by Stefan Miladinovich in the third inning tied the game for the Cougars.
In the seventh, the two-out, two-run homer by Vigo spoiled a strong effort from Golden Bear starter Austin Southcott, who suffered his first loss of the year in going the distance himself.
Game 3- No. 4 Houston-Victoria 12, No. 3 Fisher 11
The Jaguars outlasted the Falcons in an epic four-hour battle to cap the first day of action.
A string of base hits keyed the Jaguars to an early 4-0 advantage in the first inning.
The Falcons pushed across a pair of runs in the top of the next inning to cut the deficit in half at 4-2.
Four more runs in the next inning gave the Falcons a brief 6-4 lead, but Houston-Victoria scored six times in the bottom of the inning to reclaim the lead at 10-6.
It was 10-8 in the fifth inning when Kyle Bludau launched a two-run homer for a 12-8 Jaguar lead.
The score remained until the top of the ninth inning, when Dominic Zaher's two-run double cut it to 12-10. The Falcons scored again when the final strikeout was dropped and runner's advanced, including one from third base. With the bases loaded, a high bouncer was gloved on the left side and fired in time to first to beat the runner and end the game in UHV's favor, 12-11.
