The tremendous season-opening win streak for the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team finally came to a close on Saturday in Lawrenceville as the No. 8 Grizzlies were knocked off by Madonna (Mich.), 8-5, in the finale of the teams' four-game series at the Grizzly Baseball Complex.
The loss, GGC's first since May 15, 2015, dropped the Grizzlies to 25-1 on the season as GGC had not lost over the first 43 days of its 2016 season.
Madonna (7-9) opened up a 7-1 lead in Saturday's contest before GGC fought back to close the margin to two in the sixth inning, but the Grizzlies stranded 10 runners on base as the comeback bid came up short.
Zac Rinehart went 3-for-5 with three RBIs to lead the GGC offense while Josh Merrigan had two hits and scored a pair of runs.
Madonna had 13 hits in the contest as starter Tyler Oglesby (4-1) was the first of six Grizzly pitchers to take the mound in the game.
"Today, we faced a good team who I'm sure will be in an NAIA Opening Round at the end of the season" said GGC head coach Brad Stromdahl. "We competed well all week and fought hard. Today, we just came up short. The 25 wins in a row was a great way to start the season, and I am happy we went about our business even in the loss."
After each team scored a run in the third inning, Madonna busted the game open with a six-run fifth in which the Crusaders sent 12 batters to the plate.
The Grizzlies launched their rally in the bottom of the sixth, scoring four times, all with two outs. Jereid Woods' RBI single made it 7-2 and chased starter Adam Prashad (1-1) from the game. Merrigan followed with an RBI single to make it 7-3, and Rinehart's two-run single to right-center scored Woods and Merrigan to cut the deficit to 7-5.
Jeremy Hutchison tossed three scoreless innings of relief for GGC, but the Crusaders added the final insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it 8-5.
Facing Madonna closer Bobby St. Pierre in the bottom of the ninth, the Grizzlies were retired in order as the rally was denied and GGC lost at home during the regular season for the first time since April 28, 2015.
The 25-game run goes down as the longest in the four-year history of the program.
The Grizzlies are now off until Thursday, when they open a four-game home series against Ohio State-Lima at the Grizzly Baseball Complex at 6 p.m.
The first mid-season NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll is due out on Tuesday.
Game Day Central
Video coverage:
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ggc
Live stats links:
March 17: http://bit.ly/21oGEl1
March 18 – Game 1: http://bit.ly/1U8XcOC
March 18 – Game 2: http://bit.ly/1RXcEu7
March 19: http://bit.ly/1WhMi7g
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