GAINESVILLE -- Clutch players live for the clutch moments.
Gainesville senior Caleb Whitenton and junior Jonathan Gettys lived a lifetime Wednesday in Game 3 of the Red Elephants’ Class AAAAA quarterfinal series against South Effingham.
Whitenton belted two mammoth home runs, including a two-run blast in the top of the seventh to give them the lead, and Gettys pitched 3 1/3 innings of near-flawless relief -- including striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh -- as the Red Elephants rallied from behind twice to take a thrilling 8-6 win over the Mustangs at Ivey-Watson Field in the winner-take-all deciding game.
Gainesville (26-6) won the opener 5-2 on Tuesday behind a 13-strikeout performance from Gettys while South Effingham took Game 2, 10-3, behind a superb pitching performance from Calton Redding
“We count on our older guys in those moments and both of them really stepped up,” Gainesville coach Jeremy Kemp said. “They pitched around (Michael) Curry a little bit and Caleb made them pay. Just a tremendous effort by the entire team to fight back every time they got down.”
Whitenton said he was all smiles when he looked in the dugout after he got ahead in the count 3-0 with Curry on first base with two out in the seventh and the game tied at 6.
“The coaches gave me the green light,” he said. “At 3-0 you’re almost always looking fastball and I got one. I just got a good swing on it. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I saw it go out. I just know it’s the biggest hit I’ve ever had in high school.”
The ball may still be airborne as it cleared the scoreboard and the shed beyond left field and was lost from view.
Just two innings before Whitenton might have called his fifth inning blast, a solo shot to tie the game at 6 that also cleared the scoreboard, the biggest hit of his career.
“On that one I just wanted to get us back in the game,” he said. “We needed something after losing the lead right before that.”
The lead changed hands three times before Whitenton took matters into his own hands.
South Effingham starter Caleb Gonsalves got the Red Elephants 1-2-3 in the first inning and then the Mustangs took advantage of the only miscue of the game by either team in the bottom of the inning. Austin Thompson, who led off the inning with a single, scored on an error by Banks Griffith on a tough hop grounder by Corey Horne. Horne then scored on a double by Garrett Hodges for a 2-0 lead off Harrison Styles.
Gainesville responded in a big way with a five-run second inning, capped by Fedrick Cardona’s first home run of the year, a two-run shot for a 5-2 lead. Gettys had a two-RBI double and Griffith knocked in Gettys with a single to center in the inning.
“That was a huge home run,” Kemp said. “You don’t expect that but you need guys to step up and Fedrick did.”
That seemed to settle down Styles, who retired eight of the next 10 batters going into the fourth inning. But things would unravel for Styles in the bottom of the fourth.
He got the first two batters but sandwiched a pair of walks around a K.C. Brown single to load the bases. He appeared to have Thompson struck out to end the inning but did not get the call and then Thompson hammered a 3-2 pitch over the left centerfield wall for a grand slam and a 6-5 lead. Styles allowed a double to Tyler Pullum on the next batter, which would be his last of the game.
Meanwhile, Gonsalves got into a groove of his own after Cardona’ s home run retiring eight of nine batters into the fifth inning.
“We felt pretty good right there,” South Effingham coach Ron Womack said. “Gonsalves was throwing well and that was a big momentum shift.”
But Kemp brought in Game 1 winner Gettys with Pullum on second and Gettys fanned Dalton Griffin to end the inning. The lead would be short-lived.
Gonsalves got Mikey Gonzalez to ground to short and Curry grounded out to the pitcher to start the fifth. Whitenton tied it moments later. Anthony Carrera followed with a single and the Mustangs brought in sophomore Davis Hare, who got Gettys on a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Hare matched Gettys into the seventh retiring the first six he faced until he walked Curry and allowed Whitenton’s game-winning homer. Curry had homered in each of the first two games and all six of the the Red Elephants playoff games until Wednesday.
“That’s what the playoffs are all about,” Womack said. “(Gainesville) just got one more big swing than we did. We tried to dance around Curry there but Davis got too much of the plate on that 3-0 pitch. Unfortunately, (Whitenton) didn’t miss it.”
Gettys allowed just two hits and fanned eight of the 12 batters he faced to earn his second win in the series.
“I knew if I threw strikes they couldn’t hit me,” Gettys said. “It feels great to get back to the semifinals. I feel like we have a team that can win state and we showed that (Wednesday). It was a team effort.”
Gainesville next will play host to Jones County beginning Monday in the semifinals. Jones County, the No. 3 seed from 2-AAAAA, swept East Paulding in the quarterfinals.
“We know they’ll be good because they made it to the semifinals,” Kemp said. “You have to be ready to play every round. The last two have been tough but we knew they would be. We’ve found ways to win and that’s what you have to do this time of year.”
If the Red Elephants can find two more wins, they'll will be back in the championship series for the first time since 2002, when they won the second of back-to-back titles and their fifth in a seven-year span.
