Wallace College - Baseball Press Releases

Wallace falls to Gulf Coast in slugfest	2008-02-21
Hitting certainly wasn’t the problem for the Wallace Govs in their game against the Gulf Coast Commodores Wednesday afternoon. After all, the Govs got just as many hits as the Commodores. The problem was the pitching.
Each time the Govs took the lead, or when they fell behind and would make a rally, the pitching staff was unable to hold Gulf Coast at bay. Combine that with the three errors the Govs made and Gulf Coast came away with a 13-9 victory. Wallace went into this game with a pre-determined plan to use several pitchers in order to get them ready for conference play this weekend. The idea was to give several of the pitchers some work. But what Coach Mackey Sasser hadn’t counted on was his pitchers’ inability to get consistently get hitters out. “These are relief pitchers,” Sasser said. “They need to be able to come in and throw strikes and get people out. They can’t come in and walk hitters, hit people, or give up two, three, or four runs. If they can’t get the job done, it’s going to be a long year.” In a nutshell, this is how the game went for the Govs. Wallace quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Brett Chamberlain got things started with an RBI single, while Jonathan Eaves had a two-RBI single. But starting pitcher George Isabel gave it right back in the top of the second when he gave up four runs. Wallace tied the game in the third. It came courtesy of a solo home run by Eaves. But reliever Adam Oliver gave up two runs in the fifth that allowed the Commodores to take the lead again. And it only got worse from there. With the bases loaded in the seventh, Daniel Varsgasvila balked in a run. Wallace got that run back in the bottom half. Once again it was a solo home run that did the trick. This one came off the bat of Ryan Reece who hit his team leading fifth of the year. But an RBI bunt and back-to-back bases loaded walks by Joseph Braswell and Hunter Green gave the Commodores three more runs the very next inning. Again Wallace would rally, this time scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning. The big blast was a three-run homer to dead center field by Harman Watkins. Reece later added a sacrifice fly, and the Govs were within two runs, 11-9. But any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Sloan Simmons gave up two runs in the top of the ninth. Simmons only gave up two hits, but he also walked two. “We’re a good hitting team,” Sasser said. “I think we’ve proven that. But sometimes the pitchers have got to shut the other guys down in order for us to have a chance.” Wallace did get 13 hits in the contest, the same amount as Gulf Coast. The Govs also hit three home runs in the games, which is the third time that has happened this year. T.J. Rivera also continued to swing a hot bat. The Govs short stop went three-for-four with a double and two singles. Oliver took the loss for the Govs, while Ryan Fraser picked up the win for Gulf Coast. Of local interest, Gulf Coast’s Mason Meredith, who played his high school baseball at Northview, went one-for-six with two RBIs. Wallace begins conference play this weekend when they host LBW of Andalusia for a three-game series. A single game is scheduled for Friday beginning at 1 p.m. and a double header is scheduled for Saturday beginning at noon.