The No. 8 Georgia Gwinnett baseball continued its undefeated start to the 2016 season on Thursday night, defeating Madonna (Mich.), 3-1.
The Grizzlies (23-0) now lead the all-time series against the Crusaders (2-1) with Thursday's victory.
"Tonight was a well-executed effort by the guys," stated GGC head coach Brad Stromdahl. "We took an early lead, and Adam [Clark] and Davis [Adkins] carried us the rest of the way. Hats off to Madonna's pitcher on his performance tonight as well."
Georgia Gwinnett struck early, taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning of play. Right fielder Trey Haygood, who led the inning off reaching on a walk, scored the first Grizzly run of the game on an RBI-single by center fielder Josh Merrigan. Three pitches later, first baseman Zac Rinehart lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left to plate Michael Hodorowski to increase GGC's advantage to 2-0. With one out in the inning, shortstop Trevor Bradley knocked in the final Grizzly run of the game with a sacrifice fly deep down the first base line in foul territory. The hit allowed Merrigan to tag up and score on a bang-bang play at the plate where Madonna's catcher dropped the ball on the tag.
The Crusaders would narrow the game to 3-1 in the top of the third on an RBI-single by Ryan Lambrecht, but all three Grizzly pitchers, Clark, Jake Wright, and Adkins, combined for a two-hit shutout the rest of the way.
"It's good to start this series off with a win against a very good Madonna team, but we've got three more games to focus on now. We continue to grow and learn from our opportunities with each game, and that's the goal."
Clark picked up his third victory of the season, going 7.1 innings, striking out six batters while surrendering one run on five hits. Madonna's Evan Piechota pitched seven straight shutout innings after a shaky first frame, striking out 11 Grizzlies in the loss. Adkins picked up the save, allowing no runs and one hit in 1.1 innings of work.
The Grizzlies return to action on Friday for games two and three of their four-game set against Madonna. First pitch of Friday's doubleheader is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. with the second game of the twin bill starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. The same two teams will wrap up their four-game series on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Tickets for each day are $5 for adults, $3 for youth, seniors, and military, and free for children under five. All members of the GGC community receive free admission with their Claw Card. For more information on ticketing, click here. Free game day parking is available in the deck at the entrance to the GGC campus.
Game Day Central
Video coverage (March 11 only):
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ggc
Live stats links:
March 11 - Game 1: http://bit.ly/1M3D7kZ
March 11 - Game 2: http://bit.ly/1OY1DEb
March 12: http://bit.ly/1M3DagF
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