GAINESVILLE — Gainesville baseball coach Jeremy Kemp said the Red Elephants will play anyone, anytime, anywhere.
But, if he had his druthers, historic Ivey-Watson Field would be his obvious first choice.
After Wednesday’s 15-0 drubbing of Salem in their Region 8-AAAAA and regular season finale at Ivey-Watson, he’ll get his wish.
“We love playing at home and we’re excited about being able to stay at home as long as we keep advancing (in the playoffs),” Kemp said. "But, we’ll go anywhere we have to play to try and win a state title.”
The win clinched the 8-AAAAA title outright for the Red Elephants (21-4, 18-2 Region 8-AAAAA). It was their seventh consecutive region title, either outright or shared, and Kemp said it was a fitting end and also the perfect way to head into the Class AAAAA playoffs next week.
“The guys played well and played well as a team, and that’s what we’ve been talking about the last couple of weeks,” Kemp said. “I was proud of how they fought through the adversity. We’ve played well down the stretch.”
Wednesday’s matchup didn’t come with as much season-ending drama as in the past. Gainesville had already locked up the No. 1 seed via all tiebreakers with Monday’s victory over the Seminoles. But Kemp and the Red Elephants wanted to finish the region season strong to maintain momentum heading into the playoffs.
“Instead of saying we’re peaking I’d like to think we’re still on an upward trend,” Kemp said. “We’re having good at-bats and playing good defense and pitching pretty well. We just wanted to keep that going.”
Both pitchers were tough early. Gainesville’s Sam Carpenter fanned three in the first two innings but had to work around a leadoff double by Salem’s Behr Cooper to open the second inning to keep the Seminoles off the board.
The Seminoles’ Kevin Barham retired the first five Gainesville batters, including three strikeouts, but the Red Elephants connected for three straight runs to grab the lead in the second. Farris Mance, Marshall Scott, and Jared Smith all singled with two outs to load the bases. Mance scored on a wild pitch, Scott scored on a dropped third strike on Jack Langford, and Smith scored on a double steal when the shortstop dropped the ball but then recovered in time to get Langford on the way back to first.
The Red Elephants added three more in the third. Gainesville loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a hit batter. Fedrick Cardona scored on a wild pitch and then Collier Scott knocked in Carpenter and Anthony Carrera with a single to center for a 6-0 lead.
The Red Elephants continued to batter Barham in the fourth, scoring nine runs as 14 batters went to the plate. Langford had an RBI single and then Collier Scott, Smith, and Langford drew RBI walks in the inning. Gainesville invoked the 15-run mercy rule with consecutive RBI singles by Banks Griffith, Cardona, and Carpenter off reliever Austin Cater.
Carpenter got the win, going four innings scattering three hits, all doubles, and striking out five.
Gainesville will play at Mountain View in its final regular season game on Thursday.
