Noah Adcock-Howeth, Augusta GreenJackets
NORTH AUGUSTA – One out away from extra innings, the GreenJackets worked back to back baserunners and utilized a wild pitch from Dawil Almonte to send the home crowd happy in a 5-4 win to open the series Tuesday.
The ninth inning was chaotic all the way through, with Fayetteville threatening immediately in the top half thanks to a leadoff triple from Jancel Villarroel. Villarroel opted not to try to score on a groundout to short, bringing Drew Vogel to the dish with one out. Vogel clubbed a line drive to shallow right, which was snared by Junior Garcia. Villarroel came sprinting home, and scored ahead of the throw, but an appeal to third revealed that he had left early and was out to end the inning.
The bottom half of the frame began ominously against Sandy Mejia, who had already thrown four innings of relief with just one hit and one run allowed. Mejia induced groundouts from Harry Owen and Luis Guanipa to pull himself within one out of extras. John Gil bounded to the plate and drew a full count walk to put the winning run aboard, and Junior Garcia culminated his eight-pitch at bat with a base hit to right, putting men at the corners. With Mejia at a career-high 87 pitches, manager Ricky Rivera went to the bullpen in favor of Dawil Almonte. In a catastrophic turn of events, Almonte fired his second pitch of the night directly to the backstop, allowing Gil to sprint home and win the game.
Despite taking a no-decision due to the late theatrics, it was a night to remember for starter Garrett Baumann. Baumann struck out a career-high 10 batters in 5.2 innings, leaning on all three pitches for success. A solo homer from Lucas Spence, the first of his pro career, was the only blemish and ended Baumann’s night. Baumann worked opposite Juan Nunez, who lasted three-plus innings in his second Single-A start, allowing two runs on a hit and three walks.
Fayetteville’s big inning came in the top of the eighth against Albert Rivas, utilizing three hits and an RBI groundout to tie the game against the righty and lift a win from Baumann’s record book. Rivas would rebound in the ninth, and earn his second win of the year. Mejia took the loss in his lengthy effort, falling to 4-8 on the year.
This marked the first of six games in as many days between the two sides here at SRP Park this week. On Wednesday, 18-year-old Luis Arestigueta will make his GreenJackets debut on the mound after being called up this afternoon. He will go against fellow teenager Raimy Rodriguez, a volatile arm who struggled in a relief role the last time Fayetteville came to town. Tickets for the week’s slate of games are available at greenjacketsbaseball.com or by calling (803) 349-WINS (9467).
