Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

Bengals drop Garner to 0-2

FUQUAY-VARINA - Pushed by a wild, five-run inning in the fifth and then another four scores in the explosive sixth, Fuquay-Varina topped Garner 11-8 Saturday at home in a game where momentum shifted in the Bengals’ direction quickly.

Trailing the Trojans 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning with one out, Fuquay-Varina’s Harper Jones hit an RBI single that brought home Garrett Suggs to trim Garner’s lead to 6-3.

Up next, Bengals’ outfielder Austin Risch hit into a fielder’s choice, which tagged Jones out but brought home two Bengal runners to make it 6-5. Then with two outs, a Trojans’ error brought home two Fuquay runners, Risch and batter Michael Mackey.

The Bengals (2-0) had a 7-6 lead and — suddenly — the game’s momentum in hand.

“You go out and you walk three or four guys in an inning and then lose the ball, then all of a sudden, the momentum turned,” said Garner coach Derik Goffena. “They made a couple of real aggressive plays that got them back in the game and once we made those errors it seemed like they really started swinging the bats well, and came back and just out-hit us at that point.”

Garner (0-2) couldn’t respond to the Bengals’ five-run outburst, going three-up, three-down in the top of the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Fuquay-Varina’s Phillip Cotton had an RBI double that scored shortstop Zach Orrison. Addison Braswell’s RBI ground-out brought home Aaron Olive, then Risch’s two- RBI double scored Jones and Cotton.

The Bengals now commanded an 11-6 lead after scoring nine unanswered runs.

“I though what we did well, aside from base running and some good timely hitting, “said Fuquay-Varina coach Milton Senter, “is that we managed to minimize the damage in some of those innings where it could have been worse, and that was the difference in the game.

“It gave us a chance to make a little rally before it got way out of hand and our guys did a really good job of doing some aggressive base running and we didn’t make any mistakes on the bases.”

Garner fought back in the seventh, getting three consecutive hits -- including an RBI double from C.J. Schmidt to bring home Alec Hulmes -- followed by an RBI sacrifice fly from Jackson Pleasant to score Hunter Brown.

However, it wasn’t enough. Strikeouts by the next two batters stopped the Trojans comeback at 11-8, and Fuquay took the victory. Getting the win for the Bengals was Devin Kelly, while Matt Powell took the loss for Garner.

Despite the loss, hitting proved to be a major bright spot for the Trojans, which recorded 13 hits to Fuquay’s seven. Moreover, Goffena said his team made strides since its loss Friday to Broughton. “We played better,” he said. “We came out today and I thought we played well for four or five innings. Defensively, we made two errors, one was pretty big but for the most part, I thought we played decent. We hit the ball well.”

A bright spot for Garner, it got a big day from Hulmes. He went 3-for-4 and crushed a two-run homer in the third that gave Garner a 4-2 lead, then added a solo shot in the fifth that stretched the Trojans’ lead to 6-2, followed by a double in the seventh.