LOGANVILLE -- Loganville’s Mitchell Miller has been good all year.
Unfortunately for Gainesville, the junior left-hander may have been at his absolute best Friday in the two teams’ crucial Region 8-AAAAA matchup at Red Devil Field.
Miller scattered two singles and struck out 11 Red Elephant batters in six innings to lead the Red Devils to a 4-0 win.
Loganville coach Jeff Segars said Miller stepped up large in the biggest game of the season for both teams to this point.
“He’s been real good all year but whenever we play Gainesville the guys really get up for it,” Segars said. “It was one of his best outings so far considering how good the Gainesville lineup is. He made some great pitches when he needed too.”
The Mississippi State-commit outdueled Gainesville’s Jonathan Gettys -- a LSU-signee -- who fanned 11 Loganville batters but was touched for seven hits and three earned runs, the most he has allowed the entire season, in six innings.
“Jonathan threw well but Loganville is a solid team and they were able to hit a couple of mistakes by Jonathan,” Gainesville coach Jeremy Kemp said.
It was a tough loss for the Red Elephants (12-4, 7-2 Region 8-AAAAA) who were coming off an upset loss to Salem on Wednesday. They fell one game behind Loganville (13-3, 8-1) in the region standings.
The two teams will meet again on Monday at Ivey-Watson Field. First pitch is scheduled for 5:55 p.m.
Kemp, whose Red Elephants are just 4-3 in their past seven games, said they have faced some stellar pitching during that stretch but may be pressing some at the plate. They were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
“When you face good pitching you tend to press some but we’ll come out of it. We always do. I’m not too worried,” he said.
The Red Devils now have a chance to take control of the region over the last three weeks of the season if they can complete the sweep on Monday. Segars was quick to give a rebuttal.
“We have a tough time up there usually and I’m sure they’ll be ready for us,” Segars said. “If they win we’re right back where we were. There’s still a lot of baseball left to play.”
Kemp said they still control their own fate but admits there is little margin for error the rest of the way.
“If we win out we win the region. But we have to start with a win on Monday and that’s all we’re thinking about right now.”
Both pitchers were dominating early.
The Red Elephants managed a couple of ground ball outs in the first inning but Miller fanned four straight in the second and third innings. Gainesville got a two-out walk to Drew Wright and a single by Fedrick Cardona in the third but Miller fanned Anthony Carrera to end the inning and finish with six strikeouts through the first three innings.
Gettys got a lineout to center and a ground ball to end the first and then struck out the side in the second and third innings to finish with seven strikeouts through the first three innings.
Michael Curry reached on an error to open the fourth inning for Gainesville but was left stranded at second as Miller fanned Gettys and Banks Griffith to get out of the inning.
The Red Devils got the first break of the game in the bottom of the fourth. They got their first baserunner on a throwing error by Gettys on a Timothy Elliott grounder to open the inning. Morgan Copeland followed with a single to left, moving Elliott to second, and Elliott scored one batter later on a RBI single to left by Jonathan Lee for a 1-0 lead.
“That was a huge run,” Segars said. “I felt whoever scored first had the advantage but I thought it would take three runs to win.”
Loganville added on in the fifth getting a pair of singles by Rhett Mixon and Carson McCullers to go a with a sacrifice to put runners at second and third with one out. Gettys appeared to be out of the inning picking off McCullers at home on a double steal attempt. But he was called for a balk allowing McCullers to score for a 2-0 lead.
Gainesville had a chance to chip into the Red Devils’ lead getting two runners on with a Cardona single to right and Whitenton reaching on a two-out error in the top of the sixth. But Miller was able to strike out Gettys for the third time to end the inning.
Loganville put things out of reach in the bottom of the sixth. Copeland singled and then moved to third on a double by Lee. Copeland scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 lead and Rhett Mixon singled in Lee for a 4-0 lead.
Lucas Cloud came on in the seventh for Loganville and Gainesville made it interesting with Griffith and Wright reaching on singles. But Cloud struck out Cardona to end the game to keep the shutout intact.
