doubleheader sweep 6-1, 12-7
GAINESVILLE – The Gainesville Braves have served notice to the rest of the Sunbelt Baseball League, reaching the .500 mark at 7-7 with a doubleheader sweep of the Waleska Wild Things (5-8), 6-1, 12-7, proclaiming to the rest of the league, we are here to stay.
The Braves emerge from the homestand in fifth place winners of five in a row and posting a SBL best 7-3 record over their last 10 games.
Buoyed by back-to-back homers in Game One by Joe Sutton and Josh Shuler, the Braves jumped out a to 6-0 lead to make it stand 6-1 in the afternoon game of a doubleheader. Sutton and Shuler’s back-to-back blasts in the opener gave the G-Braves an early 2-0 lead. After adding a third run in the fifth inning keyed by a Jarrett Burney single, the Braves put the game away in the seventh, scoring three times highlighted by Will Mapes first homer of the season.
Parker Hildebrecht spoiled the three-pitcher shutout with a solo homer in the seventh.
Shuler’s two hits paced the Braves’ eight hits in the win.
In the nightcap the Braves played a little bit of comeback down 7-3 late, scored nine unanswered runs to put the game away 12-7. The Braves tied the game 7-7 in the fourth keyed by a Hudson Sapp two-run homer, his third. Then, put the game away when the Wild Things lived up their “Wild Thing” name walking five and hitting one as the Braves sent 10 men to the plate to score five runs on just one hit.
Brody Westbrook picked up the game two win in relief, while the Braves’ Halton Hardy picked up the win in game one while Zach Valentine earned the three-inning save.
On Monday, the Braves return home for a rematch with the Gwinnett Astros.
The Wild Thing road show continues at Golden Park in Columbus to take on the Chatt-a-Hoots.
The Gainesville Braves clubbed a pair homers to jump to a 5-0 lead and made it stand defeating the Alpharetta Aviators 5-2 Monday night at Ivey-Watson Field.
Braves (4-7) sluggers Colin Price and Lavoisier Fisher bookended a pair of big flies around a Jarrett Burney triple that was within an eyelash of leaving the yard in a pivotal four-run fifth inning where the Braves bounded off the mat to spoil Alpharetta starter Jeremy Gay’s no-hit bid with two out in the fifth inning.
Carter Lott was hit by a pitch and two outs later Colin Price drilled a one-strike fastball long into the night to give the Braves a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish. The homer was Price’s second of the season.
Following a Jarrett Burney triple that ricocheted back to the infield after hitting the top of the center field fence, left fielder Lavossier Fisher hit his second home run of the season in just his second game to give Gainesville a 4-0 lead. The pitch before the blast Burney trotted home on a wild pitch to make the score 3-0 Braves.
Gainesville added a fifth run an inning later when Will Mapes singled and came around to score on Lott’s RBI single two batters later.
Starter Rob Hamby made it stand, scattered five hits and striking out four over seven scoreless innings of work to notch his first win of the season and even his record at 1-1. Hamby also lowered his ERA a paltry 0.65 in the effort.
Gay, who threw 4.2 innings of no-hit ball absorbed the loss.
The Aviators (5-5) cracked the scoring ice in the eighth and ninth with a pair of homers, the first an inside-the-park round-tripper by pinch-hitter Lukas Clark and the second a solo moonshot by Graham Pauley in the ninth.
The two teams meet again on Wednesday at Legion Field at Wills Park with the first pitch at 7:05 p.m.