(Story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
NORTH AUGUSTA – After rain circled and threatened for most of the day, a rapidly developing maelstrom sent the tarp onto the field in the middle of the 11th inning, and it would not be removed. The game is officially suspended in a 2-1 score, to be completed Sunday afternoon at 1:35 in advance of the series finale.
In a series defined by dominant starting pitching, Drew Dowd and Adam Maier answered the bell and went blow for blow in the early oughts of the ballgame. Maier worked five innings of two-hit baseball with six strikeouts, while Dowd lasted through a career-high six frames, working around four hits and three walks while inducing three double plays to keep the Jackets off the board.
Relievers Mitch Farris and Hayden Snelsire did their part to continue the trend of zeroes, and both succeeded with little difficulty until the top of the ninth, when an error and two walks loaded the bases with two outs for the RiverDogs against Farris. Manager Wynston Sawyer brought out Reibyn Corona to walk the tightrope, and he quickly got Ricardo Gonzalez to ground out to make it a 0-0 game still entering the ninth. Snelsire went 1-2-3 in the bottom half to send the two teams to extras for the second game in three days.
Zach Austin and Luis Vargas did their part out of the pen, refusing to allow a run behind Baumann to give the offense a chance late. Augusta put the tying run in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth but still trailed by a run entering the ninth after Seth Chavez came in to hold the line.
Each side scored for the first time in the 10th inning, with an RBI single from Cristopher Barete giving Charleston the lead, and a two-out single from Alexander Martinez tying the game back up. Charleston added another run in the 11th, with a two-out double off the fence from Noah Myers’ that served as his first hit of the series.
The game will be completed Sunday with first pitch at 1:35 p.m., with Joe Olsavsky as the automatic runner at second base and Luis Sanchez at the plate with no count. Following completion of the game, Game 2 will take place 30 minutes after the initial conclusion. Riley Frey is the scheduled Game 2 starter for Augusta, while Charleston is slated to start Chandler Murphy. Those two pitchers are the only arms yet to appear for either team this week.
