SUGAR HILL — It wasn’t meant to be a statement game or anything, but Gainesville’s dominating 10-0, five inning win over Lanier Wednesday certainly will have the rest of Region 8-AAAAA on edge.
The victory for the Class AAAAA No. 2 Red Elephants (18-4, 15-2 Region 8-AAAAA) comes just days after they lost their top pitcher in Jonathan Gettys for the season at the most crucial time of the playoff race. They came into the game tied with Winder-Barrow atop the standings but with just a one game lead over third-place Loganville and just two games over the fourth-place Longhorns.
“We’re more than just one player,” said sophomore Banks Griffith, who set the tone early from the lead-off spot with a double, triple, RBI, and two runs scored in a nine-run first inning. “We showed last year we could win without our best players. We can win no matter who we have. We wanted to come out and jump on them early and get things going.”
The Gainesville offense wasted little time jumping on the Longhorns’ starter Will Johnston. They batted around, plating seven runs on four hits and an error before Johnston was pulled for Matt Rusch. But Rusch did not fare any better surrendering two more runs on three hits as the Red Elephants sent 14 men to the plate in taking a 9-0 lead. Collier Scott had a bases loaded walk, Farris Mance drove in a run on a groundout, and A.J. Smallwood, Jack Langford, and Anthony Carrera all had RBI singles in the inning.
“When Fedrick (Cardona) was hurt we put Banks at the top and we liked him there and he did a good job and is comfortable there,” Gainesville coach Jeremy Kemp said. “That’s the kind of inning we can have when everyone is having good at-bats.”
The Longhorns tried to answer right back getting a lead-off double from Cam Coursey and a two out single from Noah Fritz. But Scott got Matt Gordon to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning without a run scoring.
Scott (4-0) went the distance allowing just the two first inning hits. He fanned four and retired the final 10 batters and 13 of the last 14 overall. The only baserunner to reach after the first was was Conner Pickett in the second, who reached on a passed ball on a third strike.
“Collier really threw well,” Kemp said.
Gainesville extended its lead to 10-0 in the third on a RBI single by Carrera scoring Cardona, who reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to second on Sam Carpenter’s second hit of the game.
Rusch allowed just one earned run on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings for the Longhorns (12-11, 12-5). The loss snapped Lanier’s eight-game 8-AAAAA win streak and dropped them into fifth place, one game behind Heritage,Conyers (17-6, 14-5) who beat Discovery on Wednesday.
The win for the Red Elephants put them in first place all alone after Loganville’s 6-3 win over Winder-Barrow on Wednesday. Gainesville leads both teams by one game with three games left.
“That was a huge win for us,” Kemp said. “This has been a tough place for us. Lanier beat us here last year. But I’m sure they’ll be ready for us on Friday.
“Our focus is just the next game. But we also know that if we can win out everything else will take care of itself.”
The win also was the 200th for Kemp as the coach of the Red Elephants.
“It’s nice,” he said. “But that just means I’m getting old. Really it’s a credit to all the players we’ve had here.”
