GAINESVILLE — For six innings Saturday in a Class 6A first round deciding Game 3 against Cambridge, the Gainesville offense looked anything but clutch. The Red Elephants had left the bases loaded twice, stranded 10 runners -- seven in scoring position -- was an anemic 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and trailed the Bears 5-4 while staring down at possibly their final three outs of the season.
With one swing in the seventh inning, senior Collier Scott changed everything.
Scott rifled a single up the middle scoring Kyle York and Cameron Wilson and ignited a four-run final inning to propel Gainesville to an 8-5 win at Ivey-Watson Field.
It also gave Gainesville (22-9) a 2-1 series win over the Bears and a spot in next week’s Sweet 16 against Allatoona. Gainesville won Game 1, 4-3, while the Bears answered with a 7-5 win in Game 2 on Friday.
“I had missed with the bases loaded earlier so (in the seventh) I just tried to put something in play. I got a pitch I could hit,” Scott said. “That final inning just everything went right for us for a change. Hopefully this will help our confidence (in the next round).”
Scott’s hit didn’t erase an entire two-days worth of frustrations for Red Elephants coach Jeremy Kemp, but he was able to exhale just a bit.
“The whole series was frustrating,” he said while seeming to wipe the frustration literally off his forehead. “We only led in three innings in the three games. We really struggled at the plate at times.
“But I’m proud of the guys for fighting back. Collier is a clutch performer. That was a huge hit for us.”
The drama wasn’t over, however, as the Bears (15-16) got the final at-bat. Mitch Fleming, who already had homered and driven in four runs on the day, doubled with one out against Noah Bond. But the senior right-hander was able to get a pop up to first and a strikeout to end the game and the series.
While Scott may have provided the clutch hit, Bond was the MVP finishing the final 4 1/3 innings in relief allowing just two hits and one unearned run to settle things down after Cambridge threatened to blow the game open in the third after Fleming's two-run home run and an error gave the Bears a 5-3 lead.
But Bond fanned the final two batters in the key third inning and would go on to retire 14 of the final 18 Cambridge batters.
“Noah was awesome today,” Kemp said. “He gave us a chance and that’s all you can ask for.”
Bond said Scott’s hit and his outing may be just the catalyst the Red Elephants need as they try to get back to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016.
“That was a big for us because we hadn’t been able to get a big hit,” Bond said. “When (Collier) got that I suddenly realized I was going to have to go back out there and try and finish it. I just mentally told myself to go have fun.
“My curveball was outstanding today and having an outing like that is huge and hopefully a game-changer for me that I can go out and have that kind of success in pressure situations.”
Gainesville jumped on Cambridge starter Jared Spears quickly in the first as Banks Griffith and Scott both reached on errors and later scored on a bases loaded walk to Jackson Kemp and a wild pitch. But the Red Elephants left the bases loaded and went 0-for-4 with RISP in the inning.
The Bears answered right back in the bottom of the inning off Adam Benefield as Fleming singled in a pair of runners to tie the game at 2-2 after one.
Both pitchers settled down in the second but Gainesville struck again in the third. Charlie Wall led off with a single, stole second, and came home on a Kemp RBI single to reclaim the lead 3-2. But the Red Elephants stranded five runners through the first three innings.
Cambridge took its lead in the bottom of the third when Fleming smashed a towering home run over the scoreboard in left for a 4-3 lead. The Bears made it 5-3 later in the inning when Bond made his only mistake throwing the ball into centerfield trying to pick a runner off second allowing a runner from third to score.
Gainesville got a run back in the fourth off Bears’ reliever Johnny Eneberg when Wilson walked, Griffith reached on an error, and
Scott walked to load the bases. Jared Smith knocked in Wilson on a fielder’s choice but Smith was gunned down trying to steal second and Kemp flew out to right to end the inning without getting the equalizer and stranding two more runners.
In the fifth the Red Elephants loaded the bases on a Cale Conley double, and walks to Dalton Kyle and Griffith with two outs. But Scott flied out to left as they failed to score and stranded three more.
Things stayed that way until the seventh when Cambridge brought in its fourth pitcher of the day, Ryan Todd. Todd got Kyle on a liner to second to lead off and then the Red Elephants went to work.
York and Wilson walked and Griffith was plunked loading the bases. With a drawn-in infield Scott drilled a pitch between second and short for the eventual game-winner.
Now, Gainesville will head to Allatoona looking for a spot in the quarterfinals. The Region 6-6A champion Buccaneers crushed Creekside 16-2 and 17-1 in an easy sweep in the opening round.
“Allatoona is a great team and we will just try and get ready for them as best we can,” Kemp said. “You just try to survive and advance in the playoffs and that’s what we’ll have to do: find a way to win that series, however we can.”
