GAINESVILLE — Gainesville’s Jeremy Kemp doesn’t believe in must-win games that don’t involve the playoffs.
But his Red Elephants sure could use one after dropping a 7-5, 8-inning contest to Winder-Barrow on Tuesday in both teams’ Region 8-6A openers at Ivey-Watson Field.
(The two teams' game scheduled for Wednesday in Winder has been moved to Thursday at 5:55 p.m.).
They will return to Ivey-Watson on Friday to complete the series.
The victory gave the Bulldoggs (8-6, 1-0 Region 8-6A) the opening salvo in a series that has decided the region champion each of the last two seasons. Winder-Barrow also has now won five straight over the Red Elephants (9-5, 0-1) going back to the 2016 season.
“It’s not a must-win. Those only exist in the playoffs,” Kemp said. “There are still 14 (region) games left so there’s no reason to think of it as a must-win. We’ll get ready for (Wednesday) and try to win that one.”
One more win in the series for the Bulldoggs would give them the all-important tiebreaker in the event of a tie at the end of the season. Gainesville will need to win Wednesday and Friday to claim the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bulldoggs.
It took Winder-Barrow just two pitches to grab the lead as Brady House crushed Collier Scott’s second offering of the game over the batting cage in left for a home run.
Gainesville attempted to rally in the bottom of the first as Scott drew a two-out walk and moved to third on a bloop single by Jared Smith. But House, who started for the Bulldoggs, got Jackson Kemp to hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The Bulldoggs extended their advantage in the second when Lance Sikes doubled to lead off, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Sam Darling, and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Blake Friend to make it 2-0.
The Red Elephants mounted another potential rally in the bottom of the second as Charlie Wall and Cale Conley led off with singles. But House got Dalton Kyle to ground into a double play and struck out Clay Coffey to get out of the jam. The Red Elephants stranded two runners at third in the first two innings.
Both pitchers settled in during the middle innings. Scott retired 6 of 7 into the fifth while House retired 11 of 12 through the fifth with the Bulldoggs still holding on to a 2-0 lead. But Scott ran into big trouble in the fifth as Winder-Barrow loaded the bases on walks to House and Marsh, sandwiched around a single by Melton with one out. House scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeffers and Sikes knocked in a run with a single to left for a 4-0 lead.
The Red Elephants answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, taking advantage of several Winder-Barrow mistakes. They loaded the bases with two out on an error and two walks. Coffey scored on a wild pitch, Banks Griffith came in on a balk call, and Scott scored on another wild pitch as they knocked out House.
Scott gave way to Jay Hinshaw in the sixth after going 5 innings and allowing four runs on five hits and striking out three. Hinshaw set down the Bulldoggs in order in the sixth.
“Collier really battled after that home run and gave us a chance to get back in it,” Kemp said.
The Gainesville offense tied it at 4-4 in the bottom sixth thanks to another unearned run. Wall walked, moved to second on a groundout, and scored when he stole third and came home on a throwing error by the Bulldoggs catcher.
Both teams went down in order in the seventh sending the game to extra innings. The Bulldoggs struck back, however, loading the bases against Banks Griffith with one out in the eighth. Sikes scored on a wild pitch and then Darling scored on an error. A third run scored on a double steal to extend the lead to 7-4.
Gainesville scored one run in the bottom of the eighth on back-to-back doubles by Wall and Conley with two out but could not finish the rally.
“The guys did a great job of battling back and we had our chances to end in regulation,” Kemp said. “We don’t need to change our focus which is focus on the next game.”
The loss snapped Gainesville’s six-game win streak. The Bulldoggs have now won six of their last eight games overall.
