GAINESVILLE — The Bucket List of accomplishments for a young Gainesville baseball team against nationally-ranked Winder-Barrow Wednesday were clicking off one after another.
Most runs in an inning (7) and most runs in a game (9) against the Bulldoggs' vaunted pitching staff. Handing South Carolina-Upstate-signee Will Hardigree his worst pitching line of the season (4.1 IP, 5H, 4BB, 4ER).
It still wasn’t enough as the Red Elephants, despite rallying from an early 5-0 deficit, fell 10-9 in nine innings at Ivey-Watson Field in a crucial Region 8-AAAAAA showdown for both teams.
The win for the Bulldoggs (13-1, 4-0 Region 8-AAAAAA) assures them of the series win over Gainesville (10-5, 0-2) and they already knocked off third-place Dacula in a pair of games last week.
Gainesville will travel back to Winder on Friday to complete the three game series.
Gainesville coach Jeremy Kemp found it hard to hide his disappointment while still praising his squad, which dropped a 6-1 decision to Winder-Barrow on Monday.
“I was extremely proud of how they fought back after getting down early to take the lead. It’s a young group and they keep learning and getting better,” he said. “But we made some mistakes that you can’t make against a team like that and expect to win. But, overall I feel very positive about where we are right now.”
Despite being just the second game of the Region 8-AAAAAA schedule, it was one Gainesville virtually had to have to stay alive for a possible region title. Now the Red Elephants face a must-win on Friday or essentially they’ll fall four games back because of the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“We’re just going to have to take it one at time, which is always our philosophy,” Kemp said. “But Friday’s game is probably a little bigger now.”
Winder-Barrow coach Brian Smith said they certainly aren’t looking past Friday’s series finale.
“We don’t look at it like we’re in the driver’s seat or anything,” Smith said. “There are a lot of games left. If (Gainesville) beats us on Friday then basically it’s just a one-game difference. We’ll have to be ready because I’m sure they will be.”
Early on it looked like the Bulldoggs were going to make quick work of the Red Elephants. They wasted little time in jumping on Gainesville starter Collier Scott. Trent Maddox laced a one-out double to right and then come home on a single by Hardigree for a 1-0 lead after the first inning.
The Winder-Barrow offense continued to assault Scott in the second. With one out, and in succession, Darrell Woodall walked, Sam Darling was hit by a pitch, Skylor Murphy walked to load the bases, and Vanderbilt-signee Pat Demarco drilled a Scott pitch over the right field fence for grand slam and a 5-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Hardigree went to work on the mound for Winder-Barrow. Hardigree fanned Banks Griffith to start and after a two-out walk to Scott he got Jared Smith to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the first inning.
After a walk to Charlie Wall to start the second inning, Hardigree retired the next six batters and took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. In the fourth the Red Elephants looked ready to finally mount a big rally.
Scott, Smith, and AJ Smallwood all reached on singles to load the bases with one out. Ross Tipton walked to drive in Smith. But Hardigree got Dalton Kyle and Noah Bond to ground out into fielder’s choices to end the inning with the Red Elephants scoring just the one run.
The same problem that plagued Gainesville in the first meeting -- at-bats with runners-in-scoring-position (RISP) -- reared its head again early on Wednesday. The Red Elephants went 1-for-5 through the first four innings, going 1-for-4 in the critical fourth inning.
They managed no hits with RISP in Monday’s 6-1 loss stranding 11 runners, including leaving the bases loaded three times, through the first four innings.
Gainesville took all its frustrations out in the fifth with the biggest inning of the season against Winder-Barrow pitching. The Bulldoggs were forced to use three pitchers and yielded four hits, three walks, and hit two batters as the Red Elephants sent 12 to the plate. They were 3-for-5 with RISP in the fifth inning alone and finished 4-for-12 with RISP for the game.
In the fifth the Red Elephants loaded the bases with singles by Griffith and Smith sandwiched around a walk to Scott. The Bulldoggs then replaced Hardigree with Murphy, who surrendered a RBI single to Wall driving in Griffith. Murphy then plunked both Smallwood and Tipton to drive in two more runs and Winder-Barrow replaced Murphy with Trent Maddox.
Maddox did not fare any better. Bond walked to drive in the tying run and Griffith followed with a RBI single and Cameron Wilson capped the big inning with a two-run single to left for an 8-5 advantage.
Winder would answer right back in the top of the sixth. Hardigree doubled in two with two outs and came around to score on the same play after a pair of Gainesville errors to tie the game at 8-8.
The Red Elephants appeared to one-up the Bulldoggs in the bottom of the sixth when Smith led off the inning with a home run to left for a 9-8 lead. The Bulldoggs then found themselves down to their final strike in the top of the seventh. But Murphy got a break on a controversial non-third strike call that would have ended the game and then laced a RBI double scoring Casey Thurmond to tie the game on the next pitch.
It stayed that way until the the pair struck again in the ninth. Thurmond led off the inning with a triple and scored on a two-out single by Murphy for a 10-9 lead.
Sophomore Zack Smith, who came on in the seventh, then shut the door in the bottom of the ninth striking out three. He walked one, hit a batter, but did not surrender a hit in three innings of work to get the win. He had pitched just one inning all season until Wednesday’s outing.
“I thought he pitched great for not having seen much action,” Smith said. “He’s one of those guys that is getting to develop because of the new pitch-count rule. He just got better the longer he was out there.
“But this was one of the best games I’ve ever been involved with as a coach. Just tremendous with the back-and-forth between two great teams.”
