Published Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:35 AM
Updated Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:36 AM
Gator starter Nick Jonason (33) delivers to the plate as Anthony DeMeo (21) holds Berkeley's Thomas Brittle close at first base. Jonason gave up just one unearned run on four hits.
Gators streak ends with 2-1 loss
A full moon, a win streak holding at 13 games, and a Friday.
Not a good night for the superstitious … but it was more about a strong wind blowing in from center field and good pitching rather than bad luck that ended Goose Creek’s baseball winning streak with a 2-1 loss to Berkeley.
Gator southpaw Nick Jonason locked horns with Berkeley’s Thomas Brittle in a classic pitcher’s duel that saw both teams muster just three runs on seven hits between them.
Jonason gave up a pair of first-inning runs, one on a bang-bang play at first that would have resulted in an inning-ending double play. A second run scored on a Cam Sessions double.
That was all Berkeley would manage against the big lefty.
It was chilly night with a brisk wind blowing at the pitchers’ backs that knocked down fly balls like swatting flies
“Nick pitched a great game,” said coach Scott Durham. “But so did Thomas Brittle. We knew this would be a tight ball game. Hits came at a premium. On any other night and on any other field those two fly balls hit by Perry might have gone out. On a bigger field maybe one of those dying quail outs falls in for a hit.”
In the top of the first Perry climbed all over a Brittle fastball and drove a long towering drive to deep center that got held up by the wind.
Yamil Perez reached on an error at third and a base hit by Kenny Bryant put runners on first and second with one out. Brittle then shook off the first-inning rustiness and settled down to retire catcher Josh Kubisz on a fly to right and Jonason on a grounder to short.
In the home half of the first Brittle led off with a single to center, moved to second on Michael Dangerfield’s walk. A walk to Kyle Shepard then loaded the bases.
Jonason induced a grounder to short, but the Gators couldn’t connect on the inning-ending twin killing as Bryce Baur beat out the bang-bang play at first that allowed Brittle to score.
A double to right-center scored Dangerfield but Baur strayed too far rounding third and was thrown out to end the inning.
The Gators cracked the ice in the sixth scoring their only run of the night when Kubisz walked with one out. Pinch runner Jonathan Sechler moved to second on a wild pitch, reached third on Jonason’s error to second and scored on Eli Nichols’ Rbi single to right to make the score 2-1.
Brittle pitched out of the jam getting Chris Romack on another hard-hit shot to center that died in the wind.
Goose Creek threatened in the top half of the seventh when Perez reach on a two-out error at third. Bryant lined out to a diving Kyle Shepard at first to end the game.
“There’s a lot of baseball left to be played,” Durham said. “We regroup, come back and hopefully play deep into the HIT Tournament. You like to win them all but it’s still early and if you have to lose one it’s good to lose one early.”
Jonason gave up 2 runs on 4 hits, walking 2 – both in the first inning, and striking out 3. After the 2-run first inning no Stag runner reached as far as second base until a pair of errors in the bottom of the sixth put runners on first and second with out. A double play ended the threat to set up the Gator rally in the seventh.
The Gators fall to 13-1 and were set to play Monday afternoon in the first round of the HIT Tournament at West Ashley.