Blowfish Rebound to Beat Sharks

John Long gave up only one hit in a complete game effort

    COLUMBIA - The Blowfish finally got a ball to bounce their way. And this time, they were able to take advantage of it.

    The Columbia Blowfish (8-12) won the second game of a doubleheader behind a stellar pitching performance by John Long (East Tennessee, 1-1),  some timely hitting from David Greene (Citadel) and a lucky bounce defeat to defeat Wilmington staff ace Joe Wagstaff (Campbell, 2-1) and the Wilmington Sharks (11-9).

    It was a classic pitcher's duel early in the game, as the game's only run until the final two frames came in the third inning. Richie Allen (Eastern Kentucky) singled with one out, then stole second. With two outs in the inning, Aaron Miller (Gardner-Webb) hit a weak groundball in the infield, but a throwing error by the third baseman Greene allowed him to reach, and Allen scored from second on the play.

    Pitching dominated the rest of the game, and Long was certainly phenomenal in his second start as a Blowfish. Long allowed only two Sharks to reach base after the third inning. In all, Long gave up only 1 hit, 1 unearned run, and walked one while striking out five in seven innings on the night.

    "He was successful because he attacked hitters early in the count and working ahead of them," Blowfish Head Coach Lee Gronkiewicz said after the game when asked about Long's performance. "He was a bit rusty in his first start, but tonight he commanded his fastball well and was able to be aggressive because of it."

    The Fish were finally able to break through in the sixth with some much-needed timely hitting. Vergason singled to start the inning, then stole second. After Branfy Arias (Tusculum) was plunked, Brison Celek (South Carolina) reached on a bunt single after Wagstaff had some trouble fielding to load the bases. Head coach Tom Fleenor then pulled his ace, and brought in Chris Mazza (Menlo) to face Greene with the bases loaded and no outs. Greene singled to left field to bring home Vergason and Arias, providing the winning margin.

David Greene hit the go-ahead single in the 6th

    It was certainly an eventful top of the seventh inning, as the Sharks tried to tie it up. Matt Willis (Barton) led off the inning with a ground ball to shortstop. Vergason, however, threw wildly to first base, and Willis was safe on the error. He immediately took a couple steps inside the foul line, making him a live runner on the play. As he hesitated while thinking about taking off for second, the ball took a fortuitous bounce off the wall in front of the stands, and landed directly in the hands of second baseman Max McEleny (San Diego), who fired to Celek. Willis dove back to first, but was tagged out on the play. The next two runners flied out to end the inning.

    Columbia's first game of the night was the completion of a suspended game from June 2nd. The game resumed in the bottom of the fourth with the Blowfish leading 1-0 with runners on the corners and one out. Columbia, however, was unable to put any runs across in the remainder game and fell 2-1. Derrick Smith (Erskine, 1-1) pitched well in the loss, allowing just two runs on seven hits in a complete game. He also struck out eight. Justin Somers (Wingate) pitched into the eighth inning, allowing no runs on three hits. Corey Carver (Campbell) retired the last four batters of the game to improve his record to 2-1.

    The Sharks took control of the game in the top of the 6th. Tim Taylor (USC-Aiken) tripled with one out in the inning, then scored on an Aaron Miller (Gardner-Webb) line drive single. Miller advanced to second on Nate Richards's groundout and later stole third. Smith threw a wild pitch that got past Columbia catcher Shawn Glover (Erskine) and skipped to the  backstop, which allowed Miller to score on the play and gave the Sharks the decisive 2-1 edge.

    Notes: The two earned runs allowed by Wagstaff were his first two given up this season... The Blowfish struggled with runners on base in the second game, stranding six in six innings... Columbia continued their recent defensive struggles, with three errors in game two... The Blowfish travel to Forest City, Wilmington, and Fayetteville before returning home to take on Wilmington again on Wednesday, June 23rd … All 12 oz. beers and soda will be just a dollar as a part of Wet Wednesday.