Garner High summer league splits weeks with 1 win, 1 loss

Posted July 7, 2009 at 1:21 pm and filed under GMHS, Sports. Updated August 10, 2009 at 11:49 am.

By Chris Edwards
Citizen Journalist

Woodard saves the day in relief

The varsity summer league returned home Monday, June 29 as they welcomed the defending Eastern Regional Champions, the Sanderson Spartans.

Garner gave the ball to Will Norris who was looking for his second consecutive win for the Trojans. But Norris left the game in the fourth with the Trojans trailing 7-3. The Trojans then brought in Bryan Woodard, who did an outstanding job in relief, going the final three innings and giving up just one run.

Despite the outstanding performance from Woodard, Garner still trailed by three going to the bottom of the sixth; things were looking bleak for the Trojans. But Connor Torruella led off the inning with a single and later scored on a Jackson Pleasant single. The two-hit single by Pleasant brought up C.J. Schmitt, and on a two-ball, one-strike pitch, Schmitt bolted a two-run game, tying homerun to dead center field to tie the game.

In the top of the seventh, Sanderson got a runner to second base but did not score, and in the bottom half the Trojans found a way to win.

Brett Bailey walked to start the inning and advanced to third on back-to-back wild pitches. With one out, Brett Walters reached on an error, which set the stage for Torruella, who lined a seeing-eye single up the box to win the game for the Trojans.

The win moved Garner to 5-2 on the year. Following the game, Coach Trey Bailey praised Woodard’s pitching.

“Will Norris struggled in the beginning and came out and battled, and seven of [Sanderson's] runs came with two outs, and we had some guys maybe didn’t come up and make the big play when we needed them to,” Coach Bailey said. “Bryan Woodard came in and really shut the door for us and also got a big double that really energized our team.”

Coach Bailey was also proud of the rest of the team.

“I challenged the guys early on to not be complacent and come out and set a tone,” he said. “Brett [Bailey] hitting a homerun after Sanderson scored four runs in the top half was huge for us, and C.J.’s homerun I can’t say enough about. I was standing over at third base and knew he was due for a homerun.”

Fuquay frustrates Garner

After a win over Sanderson just two days before, the Trojans were back at home against Fuquay Wednesday, July 1. But Garner couldn’t find any breaks on that night as they fell 4-1 at Trojan Park.

Pleasant started for the Trojans and found the going to be a little rocky in the game’s opening. Pleasant gave up two first-inning runs, one via wild pitch and another on an RBI fielder’s choice from Collin Carver. But the top of the first wasn’t all bad for the Trojans as Jesse Fisher climbed the wall in left field to rob Harper Jones of a two-run homerun.

But the Trojans could not capitalize on the momentum as they managed to squander scoring chances in the second and fourth innings. Garner could only manage three hits through the first six innings. Going to the bottom of the seventh, the Trojans were down 4-0.

Regardless, the Trojans didn’t quit as they continued to fight. With Garner down to their final strike, Alec Hulmes laced a single to left field to give the Trojans some life.

Hulmes’ single was followed by back-to-back walks, which loaded and chased Mitchell from the game.

Fuquay brought in Zach Orrison, and he was effectively wild for the Bengals as he walked Aquail Sanders to score Hulmes from third and keep the game going for Fisher, who grounded out to first to end the game.

Following the Trojan loss, Coach Bailey said he was frustrated with the way things went.

“Tonight was not a good night, and there are not a lot of positives about tonight. I was not pleased with the effort or the attitude tonight,” he said. “It’s frustrating. When Fuquay comes in to play, you assume that your players are going to come out fired up. …I don’t think we were prepared physically or mentally to play.

“On a positive note, we let some guys play tonight who don’t normally play for us, and they did well.”

Related articles:

Print This Print This
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling out the following comment form, or trackback to this entry from your site

Leave a Reply

We believe that reader interaction is a valuable feature on our website and aim to foster an online community that is enriching, robust and respectful. We reserve the right to remove any comment that contains profanity or obscenity; is an advertisement for services or a solicitation of funds; contains a personal attack or a threat; or is unrelated to the story.