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Blue Eagles Win A Wild One By Way Of A Wild Pitch
Web Posted June 7, 2010
 SPARTANBURG,
S.C. – The Spartanburg Blue Eagles defeated the Tennessee Tornado’s 10-9 in extra innings Monday night in front of the home crowd at Switzer Stadium to jump into a first place tie in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League standings.
The Blue Eagles, who trailed 9-3 entering the bottom of seventh, rallied to score three runs in the seventh and three runs in the ninth to force extra innings, before finally ending the game dramatic fashion in the bottom half of the tenth.
Charleston Southern reliever George Schaefer, who had been in the game since the top half of the seventh inning, pitched a scoreless tenth, allowing the Blue Eagles a chance to win in the bottom half to the inning.
The Blue Eagles did just that, as USC Upstate’s Gaither Bumgardner led off the inning with an infield single. Bumgardner’s college teammate Brody Greer then step up and tried to sacrifice bunt him to second, but Tennessee’s closer Justin Trivette lost his control, walking Greer on four straight pitches. After Greer, Presbyterian’s Aaron Preston came to the plate with intentions of sacrificing, but again Trivette had problems finding the strike zone throwing three straight balls, including one wild pitch which moved both Greer to second and Bumgardner to third. Facing a 3-0 count, Tornados manager Phillip Al-Mateen decided to intentionally pass Preston in favor of facing Erskine’s Zac McCarthy who would have been next. The only problem is that Trivitte lost control of the final intentional ball, throwing it way over Tornados catcher Dustin Huff’s head. Bumgardner scored from third as a result of the wild pitch, ending one of the most bizarre baseball games ever to be played.
Head Coach Ryan Thomas spoke the toughness of his team and what it means to get a victory over the Tornados tonight.
“These guys proved tonight that they are not going to give up no matter what the score is,” said Thomas. They are setting the bar for what kind of baseball is going to be played here in Spartanburg in the future.”
Tonight’s comeback was the definition of a team win as numerous Blue Eagles contributed to the diminishing of the six run deficit they faced. Bluefield’s Ryan Lambert doubled in Winthrop’s Austin Barber and Charleston Southern’s Jaren Sustar in the bottom of the ninth facing a 9-6 deficit. After Lambert’s double narrowed the margin of defeat to 9-8, USC Upstate’s Tyler Miller came to the plate representing the winning run. Earlier in the game, in two separate instances, Miller had struck out and grounded out with runners in scoring position. However, when it mattered most, the right handed hitting right fielder lined a double down the right field line to drive in the tying run.
“I came up when it matters most,” said Miller after the game. “I told myself I was going to get a hit in this situation, for myself and for my teammates. I was down 0-2 in the count, thinking fastball and when he threw me that fastball on the outside corner of the plate, I just drove it down the right field line.”
Miller was stranded on second in the ninth, but it did not matter as a scoreless top of tenth pitched by Schaefer allowed for the walk off wild pitch to occur in the bottom of the inning.
Schaefer was the winning pitcher of the night moving to 1-0, while Justin Trivette received the loss falling to 0-1 for the summer.
The Blue Eagles travel to Johnson City Tennessee Wednesday night to play the Tornados again, but this time winner will climb into first place all alone as both clubs share identical records of 5-2.
“They are going to be coming for blood,” said Thomas. “Our guys are ready though, it gives us a lot of confidence being able to battle back and beat their closer the way we did.”
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