Fayetteville Takes Advantage of Blowfish Errors

The Blowfish watch the game unfold. (Courtesy: Johnny Gasque)

COLUMBIA - The Fayetteville SwampDogs took advantage of defensive miscues by the Blowfish to take care of Columbia 6-2. The Blowfish have now lost 6 of their last 7 games.

    Fayetteville scored a total of six runs in the third, fourth, and fifth inning to run away from the Columbia behind a dominant start by Ryan Prickett (Southeast Missouri, 2-0). The SwampDogs got going in the second when lead-off hitter Jay Carlson (Dartmouth) singled to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt, third baseman Eric Grabe (Tampa) singled him home to give the SwampDogs a 1-0 advantage.

    Fayetteville blew the game open by batting around in the fourth and chasing Blowfish starter Chase Pickering (West Virginia, 1-1) after just 3 and 2/3 innings. Brandon Padula (Maryland) led off the inning by singling, then scoring on a Jay Cannon (Brunswick Community College) triple that sailed over the head of right fielder Demontez Jones (Georgia Southern), who was playing very shallow on the play.
    
    After a walk to Benton Yaun (Goergia College and State), Fayetteville put the suicide squeeze on. A perfectly placed bunt to the right of Pickering allowed Cannon to score easily. Pickering rushed the throw to first and fired it low past first baseman Brison Celek (South Carolina) to allow the runners to advance two bases with no outs. That error was the 21st error in the last 7 games for Columbia, which frustrated Coach Lee Gronkiewicz.
   
     "We're just plain not going to win playing like that," he said in a post-game interview upon hearing that statistic.
   
    On a strike-out pitch, catcher Nick Abrahamson (Virginia Commonwealth) caught Carlson stealing with a perfect throw to second. However, a wild pitch by Pickering allowed Dean to score from third to make the score 5-0 in favor of the Swampdogs. Reliever Chad Hodges (Shorter) came in to work 3 and 1/3 effective innings of relief for the Blowfish, allowing 1 unearned run on 2 hits.
   
     After Fayetteville tacked on another run in the fifth to push the advantage to 6-0 courtesy of another Columbia error, the Blowfish made a late rally with two outs in the eighth. Demontez Jones (Georgia Southern) and Dadynoel Lorenzo (Shorter) reached base with one out. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position and an error on shortstop Jordan Dean (Central Michigan) that allowed Jones to score, Branfy Arias (Tusculum) laced a double that plated Lorenzo, but DH Max McEleny (San Diego) rolled a weak grounder to second base to end the threat.

Branfy Arias picked up his 10th stolen base in the 7th.

    Notes: Hodges picked two runners off tonight, giving him a total of 4 in his last 2 home games. He would have had another in the 5th if not for an error that allowed the runner to reach second safely. He led the nation with 22 pickoffs at Shorter this year.... RF Demontez Jones appeared to injure his ankle in the 4th inning, and was seen with a limping after the game, but both Jones and Coach Gronkiewcz emphasized he was fine... This game was the first of a season-long five game homestand. The Blowfish are off tomorrow before a double-header Saturday against Morehead City. Saturday night will be Military Appreciation Night in honor of the Army's birthday. Any person with a military I.D. will be admitted free of charge in honor of their service to America.