One that got away

Monsters blow 6-0 lead as GolDiggers find heaven in seventh inning

Friday’s results
Atlanta Blues 8, Atlanta Crackers 4
Columbus 9, Gwinnett 2
Gainesville 11, Choccolocco 6
Waleska 10, Alpharetta 9, 10 inns.

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

OXFORD – Gainesville GolDiggers manager Micah Owings is usually a pretty laid-back guy, but what he had seen in the first couple innings Friday night was enough to change anyone’s demeanor.

Some shoddy play in the field had given the Choccolocco Monsters early control of the game and Owings, a former major leaguer, let his team know just how he felt about it.

The sight of their manager getting loud made an impression. The GolDiggers tightened up in all phases of the game and rallied for an 11-6 win at Choccolocco Park to spoil what was looking to be an historic night for the hometown Monsters.

“I’m pretty laid back, they know that, but I had to get on them a little bit there,” Owings said. “Three runs, four errors, no hits. So, we just had to clean it up and they responded.”

The Monsters looked every bit on their way to getting over .500 for the first time in their history when they went up 6-0 after four innings. As Owings noted, they scored their first three runs in the first two innings without the benefit of a hit. The 6-0 lead was their biggest ever.

But the GolDiggers chipped away at it. Their rally peaked in the seventh when pinch-hitter Will Mangurian and John Anderson both drilled three-run homers. The inning started with a dropped third strike.

Gainesville batted around in their big inning. Mangurian was sent to bat for Theodore Bryant after Brady Moore ripped an RBI double to deep center to make it 6-4 and put the tying run in scoring position. The senior infielder from Troy, hitless in six previous at bats, belted a 1-2 breaking ball from Brock Hill over the right-field fence to give them the lead

“(Owings) told me to get ready early in the inning, so I was mentally prepared to go up there,” Mangurian said. “Of course, it always helps watching the guys in front of you, seeing how they’re going to pitch you.

“I know my strength for sure as a hitter is to hit the ball hard in the air. (Hill) threw me a breaking ball that I took for the second strike so I knew if he was going to throw it again I was going to just turn and burn on it. Sure enough, he threw the same exact pitch the next pitch.”

Monsters manager Steve Gillispie lifted reliever Hill at that point, but his replacement, Harris Burns, didn’t fare much better. Jackson Mayo greeted him with a single and stole second, securing the bag when the Monsters couldn’t hold the throw. Parker Brosius walked and then Anderson, a junior in the transfer portal from Georgia Tech, followed with his three-run shot to left center.

“New team, new guys, we haven’t gotten it clicking yet, but (Owings) got us fired up and one by one we started … providing and started clicking as a group,” Anderson said. “I think I have a home run-ish swing. Prior to that at bat I was just getting under it, getting my foot down a little late, so I went back to the left-center approach and I got a good pitch to hit and it just happened.”

The GolDiggers set the Sunbelt Baseball League record for homers last year (32), but this year’s team “is more a bunch of grinders who just come out and want to play every day,” Owings said. They’ve hit four homers this season.

The Monsters scored three runs in the first two innings without benefit of a hit. They went up 6-0 with three in the fourth, capped by Brant Deerman’s two-run opposite field single to right. They opened the inning with four straight singles after being no-hit for the first three innings by GolDiggers starter Austin Grause and had five altogether in the inning.

The Monsters had a season-high 10 hits, but Grause and two relievers – Hunter Potzner and Zach Valentine – held them scoreless over the final five innings.

Starter Will Griffith held Gainesville scoreless through the first four innings on only one infield single. The GolDiggers put together three hits for two runs in the fifth and added another in the sixth before erupting in the seventh.

“Will had been pretty dominant and they maybe got some confidence once they were able to scratch a couple off him,” Gillispie said. “They just got off good swings and turned some balls around even before the home runs, which breeds confidence.”

MONSTERS MASH: Former Spring Garden pitcher Weston Kirk (L.B. Wallace) is expected to join the Monsters as early as Saturday … Monsters second baseman Brant Deerman (Chattahoochie Valley CC) said he was transferring to Wallace State, where he planned to be roommates with former Piedmont and Monsters teammate Sean Smith … Owings, a former Georgia Tech star, spent six years in the big leagues with the Padres, Diamondbacks and Reds … The Monsters are expected to start Jax State’s Garrett Telaga in Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. game against the GolDiggers.

Gainesville               000 021 701 – 11 11 5
Choccolocco            120 300 000 –   6 10 3
WP: Hunter Potzner (1-0). LP: Harris Burns (1-1). 2B: Brady Moore (G), Brandon Prince (C), J.J. Rapp (C). HR: Will Mangurian (G), John Anderson (G). 

Sunbelt Baseball League standings

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