GAINESVILLE — The Gainesville Braves did a lot of things right during their 14-5 loss to the Atlanta Crackers Monday night at Ivey Watson Field.
But they also continued to do a lot of things wrong as well.
The good: the Braves (0-4) are starting to hit, pounding out a season-high 10 hits, which included a pair of homers, a triple and a double among them. Carson Paetow’s moonshot to right in the third was the team’s first home run of the year. Joe Sutton added another big fly later in the eighth, a high and long majestic blast to right-center. A first-inning double for catcher Carter Lott gave the Braves their first lead of the year, driving in Paetow and Jarrett Burney. Charlie Erickson rapped two hits
The bad: Braves hitters struck out 11 times against Crackers pitching and left six base runners stranded on the night.
The ugly: a seven-run second inning by the Crackers quickly erased the Braves’ newfound lead. The seven runs scored by as many hits batsmen – three – as Atlanta had three hits in the inning. None of the seven runs scored in the second were earned. The Gainesville mound staff hit six batters total Monday night and also walked six. The Braves' defense committing five errors didn’t help their cause either.
“We keep plugging,” said Gainesville manager Micah Owings. “We are stressing the positive here. You can’t focus on the negative. We’ll work on those things.”
The Braves pitchers have “live arms." They throw hard and their pitches have late movement, both good things according to Owings.
"Very good things," Owings added with a nod.
The staff, from top to bottom can bring the head and with a lot of late movement that sometimes handcuffs their catchers. A half-dozen wild pitches is a testament to those live arms. And while it's true you can teach a kid how to throw strikes, you can't teach him how to throw a 95 mile per hour fastball.
Of Atlanta’s 10 hits, only a handful were hit hard and only two went for extra bases – a double in the sixth by Donavan Cash and a late pinch-hit homer by Nathan Anderson.
Owings said he’d rather start the season off like this than end it this way.
“Wins will come,” he said. “We’ll remember these games down the road when we meet these teams again.”
The Braves received some reinforcements this week in the likes of Lott, Sutton and Blake Wehunt, whose collegiate ball clubs exited the NCAA tournament. More will come as the tournament winds down. The trio contributed to the Braves' cause immediately in a two-out, two-RBI double by Lott in the first, Sutton’s mammoth homer in the eighth and a stellar outing by Wehunt last week on the road against the Gwinnett Astros.
“You should see Wehunt pitch,” Owings said of his pitcher’s six-inning, two-run performance last week.
That’s good news for these Braves moving forward.
THE SILVER LINING
-- Owings moved Paetow, his leading hitter with a .364 average, to the leadoff spot and he produced going 2-5 on the night with a leadoff double to add to the big fly.
-- The Braves’ 10 hits were a season-high.
-- Take away the seven-run second inning and the Braves and Crackers are elbows deep in a one-run nail-biter going into the ninth.
UP NEXT
The Braves will visit the Crackers again on Wednesday, travel to Columbus for a two-game series on Thursday and Friday and an away game against Marietta on Sunday. They'll return to Ivey Watson on Wednesday, June 23 to host the Marietta Patriots. For more information about the Gainesville Braves, go to gainesvillebraves.com.
