FAYETTEVILLE NC - Suddenly, the Columbia Blowfish (17-26) are playing like one of the Coastal Plain League's better teams.
The Blowfish defeated the Fayetteville SwampDogs (21-23) for the second consecutive night, this time taking a 5-4 heart stopper Saturday night in Fayetteville for their third straight win and fifth in their last seven games. The Blowfish enjoyed a solid performance by starter John Long (East Tennessee State, 3-2), who pitched five scoreless innings in his first road start while allowing only four hits.
Columbia got the scoring started in the top of the second. Demontez Jones (Georgia Southern) began the inning with a bunt single that third baseman Eric Grabe (Tampa) could not make a play on. He moved up to second on a Max McEleny (San Diego) single, then moved to third as part of a double steal, although McEleny was caught going to second. After that, Nick Orvin (Citadel), Matt Williams (Liberty) and Branfy Arias (Tusculum) drew consecutive walks to force home Jones. Orvin scored on a wild pitch later in the inning to put his team ahead 2-0.
The Fish tacked on a tally in the fourth when McEleny scored on a throwing error by Grabe, and it seemed like Columbia was beginning to run away with this one when they added two more in the fifth to push their advantage to 5-0. Nick Abrahamson (Virginia Commonwealth) reached first on Grabe's second error of the game, then came all the way around to score on a double off the bat of Jones. McEleny then came through with his third hit of the game to plate Jones.
Fayetteville, however, was not going to let this one go without a fight. Nick Natoli (Towson) led off the bottom of the sixth by working a free pass from reliever Tucker Hawley (Alabama). A groundout to the right side advanced him 90 feet, and he came around to score when Grabe ripped a single to atone for his earlier defensive gaffes. Wychock (Towson) drove home Grabe with a fielder's choice to cut the deficit to just 3.
The SwampDogs pulled a bit closer in the eighth, but lost an excellent opportunity to make it pull in front. Grabe singled to start things, then Corey LeVier (Cypress) reached when Brison Celek (South Carolina) booted a ground ball to put runners on the corners. Head Coach Lee Gronkiewicz then turned the ball over to closer Derrick Smith (Erskine). The move proved to be successful, as Smith induced a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Wychock, although Grabe did score on the play.
The game got very interesting very quickly at that point. Smith came out for the ninth, but it did not go nearly as well as the eighth. After a double and error from Jones allowed lead-off hitter Benton Yaun (Georgia College and State) to reach third, Smith issued back-to-back walks to Joe Witkowski (St. John's) and Christian Cummins (Illinois) to load the bases with no outs.
Chad Hodges (Shorter) then came on and allowed a single to center by Natoli to score Yaun, but Witkowski was held at third by third base coach Darrell Handlesman, which would prove costly. Hodges then induced a 1-2-3 ground ball to put two outs on the scoreboard, which brought up Grabe, who was 3-4 to that point. The Fish decided to issue him an intentional walk to bring up LeVier, who had hit the ball hard in all four of his at-bats on the night. Hodges, however was able to induce a fly ball to shortstop as Columbia hung on for the win.
NOTES: The start of the game was delayed by 40 minutes due to rain, then interrupted for about 15 minutes for field repairs... McEleny and Jones both finished the game 3-4. McEleny has now reached base 6 times in his last 9 plate appearances... Columbia heads to Florence tomorrow in their final game before the All-Star break to take on the Redwolves at 7:05. The Fish return to the Cap Wednesday July 21st to meet the Morehead City Marlins on Wet Wednesday. 12 oz beers and sodas will be just a dollar and all college students will be admitted free with their school ID.
