Team Orange wins marathon game four to even Fall World Series
Carson-Newman baseball’s annual Fall World Series had a very eventful game four. Team Orange walked off Team Navy 5-4 on a throwing error in the 13th inning to level the series at 2 on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman baseball's annual Fall World Series had a very eventful game four. Team Orange walked off Team Navy 5-4 on a throwing error in the 13th inning to level the series at 2 on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
Ryan Higgins started for Team Orange and was excellent. He pitched a scoreless first inning, despite allowing a two-out infield single to Johno Pierce. He was even better in the second, striking out the side to up his total to four on the day.
Team Navy turned to Kolton Casson and he countered Higgins' zero in the first, sending down Team Orange in order in the first inning.
Seth Benner would deliver the World Series' first long ball off Casson in the bottom of the second. The graduate student launched the first pitch high over the left field wall to put Team Orange ahead 1-0 after two innings.
Higgins would strike out Braxton Smith to start the third inning to finish off his day. The junior pitcher fired 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts.
Casson settled back in for Team Navy. He recorded a pair of punchouts in the third to strand an Orange runner on base.
That momentum would carry into the top of the fourth for Team Navy. Leading off the frame, Logan Floyd would get all the way to second on an error. After moving to third on a sacrifice bunt, Floyd would score on a Kylan Hornbuckle sacrifice fly to level the score at 1 in the fourth.
Team Orange would not allow a shutdown inning to occur. Cole Nathan led off the bottom of the fourth with a double to right-center field. Benner would score Nathan on a single to right field to put the Orange squad back in front 2-1 after four frames. Bransen Angel limited the damage by firing two strikeouts to strand two Navy runners in scoring position.
Nathan would come through again for the Orange team in the bottom of the fifth. A line drive single drove in Aiden Gibson to extend the margin to 3-1 after five innings.
Team Orange was faced with game pressure in the top of the sixth but worked around it. Aaron Bobo escaped the first and second jam by getting a strikeout and groundout to keep Team Orange ahead by two.
The pressure would continue to be applied in the top of the seventh but Navy. Alex Ring, Braxton Smith and Ryan Bolton all reached base to load the bases with nobody out. Johno Pierce delivered with a two-run single to tie the game at three. Team Orange pitcher Eli Norris recovered and struck out the side to keep things tied.
Extra innings went into effect with the international tiebreaker rule placing a runner on the second base for each team in the half inning.
Navy took its first lead in the top of the eighth inning when Ring poked a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 4-3.
Team Orange would have a chance to answer in the bottom of the inning and did. An Evan Mutter bunt back to the pitcher, allowed the speedy Tanner Kilgore to slide in safely before a tag to tie the game back at four after eight innings.
Starting in the ninth inning, the coaching staff elected to change the format because of daylight. A runner would start at second base with two outs.
The only hit over the next three innings came in the 10th inning by Sebastian Rodriguez, but a great throw from Orange outfielder Jack Wyatt threw out Pierce at home plate to extend the game.
Starting in the 12th inning, the coaching staff switched to a runner starting at third base with two outs. After a scoreless 12th, Team Orange would find a way to finish off the game in the 13th. Matthew Bishop hit a ground ball to shortstop, but a bad throw to first allowed the winning run to score for Team Orange to win 5-4.
Pierce, Ring, Rodriguez and Smith all led Team Navy offensively with multi-hit days. Team Orange was led by Benner and Nathan's two-hit days.
Team Orange used seven different pitchers in the win, led by Gavin Griner's three scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Bransen Angel recorded the most outs for Team Navy, pitching 3 2/3 innings allowing just one run to go along with two strikeouts.
With the win, Team Orange levels the series and forces a winner take all game five. Run differential also matters in this series. Navy has the advantage there 18-13 heading into the final game of the series. Game 5 of the series is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports network is available at cneagles.com/live.
