Another Late Meltdown Hurts 'Fish

Jim Rider (4) is congratulated by Matt Williams after Rider tied the game in the 7th.

COLUMBIA - The Columbia Blowfish's Erik Sommerville (Francis Marion) and the Fayetteville Swampdogs' Matt Kole (Austin Peay) went toe-to-toe in a pitcher's duel Friday night.

Naturally, neither of them recorded a decision.

Austin Lasprilla (Angelo St) tagged a single into center field to score Tanner Biagini (VMI) as the Swampdogs broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth to down the Blowfish 5-2 at Capital City Stadium.

Jhonny Montoya (Faulkner 1-0) picked up the win in his first outing for Fayetteville after pitching a scoreless eighth. Drew Mahaffey (Citadel 2-2) continued to struggle against the Swampdogs, who recorded three runs on four hits against him. Lee Zerrusen (Illinois) picked up his ninth save of the season with a shutout ninth inning.

The Blowfish took an early lead after the first inning. Matt Williams (Liberty) reached on a fielding error by Lasprilla at second base. Branfry Arias (Tusculum) then grounded into a fielder's choice as Williams was retired at second. After Richard Mounce's (Clemson) groundout moved Arias to second, Matt Leeds (College of Charleston) followed with an RBI single to give Columbia a 1-0 lead.

Matt Leeds hit an RBI single in the first inning.

That score held up until the sixth inning. Nathaniel Lami (South Alabama) led off with a single for the Swampdogs. He then stole second and advanced to third on Michael Niemann's (Delta St) groundout. Airlon Vinson (Mount Olive) then hit a sacrifice fly to deep right that evened the game 1-1.

Fayetteville's Brock Whiteman (Muskingum) started the seventh inning with a single. Sommerville then fired a pickoff throw to first that caught Whiteman in a rundown. However, first baseman Derek Smith (Charleston Southern) made an errant throw that sailed over second base, allowing Whiteman to reach second. After a groundout by Wet Delatte (LSU) moved Whiteman over to third, Columbia coach Lee Gronkiewicz brought in relief pitcher Gabe Grammar (Presbyterian). On his first pitch, Grammar toed the rubber and dropped the ball, resulting in a balk that scored Whiteman and gave Fayetteville a 2-1 advantage.

Columbia exploited Fayetteville mistakes in the bottom half of the inning. Smith led off with a single and Jim Rider (Kent St) came in as a pinch runner. Shawn Glover (Erskine) bunted Rider to second and Scott Wingo (South Carolina) followed with a ground ball to shortstop. Delatte mishandled the ball, which squirted into the outfield, scoring Rider and tying the game again, 2-2

Mahaffey was torched in the ninth inning. After Lasprilla's single scored Biagini, Niemann followed with a two-run single up the middle that scored Whiteman and Lasprilla to give Fayetteville its final 5-2 margin.

Sommerville gave up only one earned run on four hits in 6.2 innings. Kole gave up two unearned runs in seven innings on five hits.

Notes: Both of Mahaffey's losses have come against Fayetteville... It was the second time a Blowfish pitcher balked in the go-ahead run in a 1-1 game. Tyler Christman did it against Florence on June 19th... Fayetteville is now 7-1 against Columbia... Both teams face each other again tomorrow at JP Riddle Stadium in Fayetteville. First pitch will be at 7:05 pm.