THOMASVILLE, Ga. – The SSAC Series of the Week lived up to its name as the Thomas Night Hawks rallied in the ninth to defeat the Point Skyhawks on Friday night at Varnedoe Stadium.
The game started quick as Skyhawk first baseman Danny Gonzalez hit a double into left and later advanced to third on a passed ball. Then center fielder Rafael Jackson hit a sacrifice fly to bring Gonzalez home for the first run of the game.
The Night Hawks' half of the inning started with a strikeout, however three straight singles from Eli Garcia,
Brayden Lawhon and
Tyler Marczak scored the tying run, opening the door for Aiden Reyes to launch a double into center to drive in Lawhon and Marczak to give Thomas a three-run lead. Things cooled down a bit as Point brought home another run in the third; however, in the bottom half of the inning, Lawhon continued his hot streak as knocked a single up the middle to leadoff the inning,
Cameron Rosario came in as the courtesy runner for Lawhon and immediately got into scoring position by stealing second. Following Reyes reaching on a hit by pitch,
Carson Thomas hit another pitch up the middle to score Rosario, next up was
Michael Sowers who hit one into left to bring Reyes home from third.
Trey Larkin added a hit of his own to load the bases. Finally,
Seth Waltimyer hit a sacrifice fly to bring home C. Thomas. Giving the Night Hawks a five run lead.
The next inning saw back-to-back two out walks draw by Thomas from Marczak and Reyes, and
Carson Thomas delivered with a bases clearing triple to extend the lead to seven for the Night Hawks. Senior
Jon Gavin Steptoe kept the Skyhawks at bay in his final start at Varnedoe, allowing five hits and four runs with three of those being earned and striking out three. After two walks in a row, Steptoe was relived by
Nick Brady as the lefty was greeted with a standing ovation from the crowd and his teammates as he walked off the mound.
With two on and no one out, Brady got his first out on a sacrifice bunt which moved both runners into scoring position. then Skyhawk catcher Chris Mancill hit one over the head of Sowers to score one but Larkin booted the ball allowing another run to come home for Point. A hit and a walk loaded the bases for Brady who hit the next batter to bring home a third run for the Skyhawks. However, Brady regained his composure and forced a flyout and a pickoff to get out of the jam.
The Night Hawks could not get anything on the board in their half of the sixth, and in the seventh the Skyhawks scored another run off of an error to make it a three run game.
Ryan Chapman came in from the bullpen and sat down the next three batters to get out of the inning. Point continued the rally in the eighth, putting three runs on the board to tie the game at nine all, then in the ninth a sacrifice fly brought the go-ahead run home to put Point on top.
Entering into the bottom of the ninth, The Night Hawks needed another rally in a must win game, C. Thomas started off the inning getting hit by a pitch to get on base before
Gabe Tafelski came in to pinch run, following a flyout from Sowers, Larkin drew a walk to move the tying run into scoring position, then
Max Pickert came in to pinch hit and advanced Tafelski to third on a fielder's choice. Then in a situation similar to last season,
Jean Pool Checo came in to hit and got a bloop single pass the left fielder to bring Tafelski in to tie the game. Pickert advanced to third on the error to put the winning run 90 feet away. Garcia drew a walk to load the bases bringing up Lawhon. Staring down a 2-2 count, Lawhon knocked one right up the middle to win the game for the Night Hawks 11-10.
Thomas looks to finish up the series tomorrow in a doubleheader starting at 1:00PM at Varnedoe.
