Blowfish Rally Falls Short

COLUMBIA S.C.- The Columbia Blowfish (12-23) finally figured out the Morehead City Marlins (20-14) pitching staff. Unfortunately, it was just a case of too little, too late.

The Blowfish rallied with three runs in the home half of the eighth inning, but still fell 4-3 to the Marlins on a muggy summer night in Columbia.

As has often been the case for the Fish this season, it was a pitching duel at Capital City Stadium. Brad McAllister (Barry, 5-0) highlighted the match-up, and he lived up to expectations. He pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings, while scattering four hits and three walks. He struck out four on the night.

"He did what he usually does. He sunk the ball, quick pitched, and mixed pitches to keep our hitters off balance," Coach Lee Gronkiewicz said of McAllister after the game. "He's a good pitcher."

His counter-part, Ryan Garton (Florida Atlantic, 0-2), was excellent on the evening as well, but ended up the hard luck loser. He matched McAllister each step of the way, faltering only once. He allowed just one run and one hit on six innings of work, though he did issue four free passes. He struck out four as well.

"He dominated with four pitches in the strike zone, and kept the ball down, which is why he was successful," Coach Gronkiewicz said.

The Marlins struck in the fifth, when Stephen Marino (Stony Brook) had an excellent plate appearance to draw a walk that lead off the inning. Zack Borenstein (Eastern Illinois) followed with the only hit Garton allowed, a single, that put runners on first and second with no outs. Chris Schaeffer (N.C. State) laid down a sacrifice bunt, and both runners advanced 90 feet on the play as Chase Vergason (Florida Atlantic) made a nice charging play on the ball. Chris Taylor (Virginia) then lofted a flyball high to right field, and the race was on. Marino tagged on the play and headed for the plate, as Demontez Jones (Georgia Southern) gunned the ball to the plate. It was an excellent throw from Jones, but not quite in time, as Marino slid safely around Nick Abrahamson (Virginia Commonwealth), who was blocking home on the play.

The Marlins nearly added another run in the sixth. Garton started the inning by issuing a walk to the lead-off man Chad Oberacker (Tennessee Tech). Marino laid down a bunt to attempt to sacrifice the runner to second. Garton fielded the ball and fired to second, but it was over the head of Vergason and rolled into centerfield. Both runners took an extra base on the play to put runners on second and third with no outs. Then, Borenstein hit a weak roller down the 3rd base line, and Oberacker charged for home. Garton fielded the ball, and dove to barely tag Oberacker in time. The inning ended when the next batter Schaeffer grounded into a 5-3 double play to end the inning and keep the score at 1-0.

Morehead City sent seven to the plate in the top of the 8th, including consecutive doubles from Schaeffer and Borenstein, to drive in three runs and take a 4-0 lead. Columbia, though, would not go down without a fight. The bats broke out in the home half of the inning, when Nick Orvin (Citadel) singled with one out. Taylor Black (Kentucky) then laid down a perfect bunt that trickled about 45 feet down the third baseline before anyone could get to it. He was safe without a throw for the infield single. During the next at-bat, catcher Cory Bass (North Florida) fired down to first in an attempt to pick-off Black, but the throw sailed into the Blowfish bullpen. Orvin raced around from second to score, and Black jogged safely into third.

Unrattled by all of this was Vergason. He drove the ball deep for a double that easily scored Black, and the score was 4-2. After a groundout for the second out, Jones walked to bring up Shawn Glover (Erskine). Glover hit a single that fell in front of Oberacker in centerfield, and Vergason cruised home as the throw to Bass skipped off the mound. A double steal by Jones and Glover put runners on second and third with two outs, but Dadynoel Lorenzo (Shorter) struck out swinging on three straight pitches.

NOTES: Columbia has now lost 7 straight, and 9 of their past 11... The 3 runs the Blowfish scored are the most runs they have pushed across in 10 days. That game was capped by a 10 run comeback in the ninth by the Fish... Columbia struckout 6 times tonight, giving them a total of 99 in their last 12 CPL games... The Blowfish travel to Martinsville tomorrow in the only matchup between them in the Mustangs on the season. They return to the Cap Saturday to take on the Florence Redwolves at 7:05. Play catch with the Blowfish will be held before the game, at approximately 6:15. All college students will be admitted free with their student ID.