HATTIESBURG – In a game that featured two grand slams, a solo home run and 23 total runs, it was only fitting Thursday’s Game 1 between Gulfport and Oak Grove went to extra innings.
Gulfport’s runs came in burst, and that follow suit in the eighth inning, as the Admirals scored three runs in the top half to outlast the Warriors 13-10 at Harry Breland Field. The win gives Gulfport a 1-0 third-round series lead heading back to the coast for Friday’s Game 2. First pitch for that contest is set for 6 p.m. in Gulfport.
“I thought we battled really good,” Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle said. “Every time we got the lead, we’re not mature enough as a group for our guys on the mound to pitch like we’re supposed to pitch.”
Gulfport scored its 13 runs in only three innings, too. Trailing 2-0 in the third, it scored six runs to take a 6-2 lead, then pushed four across in the fifth inning to grab a 10-9 advantage. Both times, though, Oak Grove battled back in the next half innings with home runs from its two best hitters, junior John Rhys Plumlee and senior Hayes Maples.
After Gulfport jumped up 6-2, Plumlee sent a grand slam – his second four-RBI homer of the season – over the left field wall in the five-run third inning to give the Warriors a 7-6 lead. Then, Maples’ solo shot in the fifth tied the game at 10-all after the Admirals scored four runs in the top half of the frame.
“If you score 10 runs, you’re supposed to win, and that’s the No. 1 thing here at this program. Pitching and defense wins championships. Bats can’t win it,” McCardle said.
Plumlee finished the night with a 2-for-4 performance from the dish with four RBI and two runs scored. Sophomore DeeJay Booth added a pair of hits from the two-hole, and junior Alex Bolling was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks. Sophomore Turner Swistak led the offense with three hits to go along with his two RBI.
Gulfport’s Blake Johnson – the team’s leading hitter – added a grand slam of his own, which came in the fifth to take the 10-9 lead.
“We’ve talked about Blake Johnson and the home runs he’s hit, and we throw him a pitch right down the middle,” McCardle said. “It’s not supposed to be right down the middle, and he made us pay for it.”
Johnson also started the game on the mound for the Admirals, and the Warriors got to him early for a pair of runs in the first. Johnson pitched 3.1 innings before Oak Grove chased him from the game. He gave up nine runs – all earned – on eight hits with six walks and two strikeouts.
The outing was the shortest pitching night for Johnson all season, and the nine runs were the most allowed for him in 2018, too.
Swistak started on the bump for Oak Grove and pitched two clean innings to start the game. He stranded two Admiral base runners in the first before a quick 1-2-3 inning in the second. Gulfport would get to him in the third for six runs off three hits, two walks and two sacrifice flies, however.
“I know he was a little nervous about the game, being against those guys,” McCardle said of Swistak. “He just didn’t have it.”
Juniors Ty Scott and Rhett Blackburn combined to pitch the next 2.1 innings, and they both will be available for Friday’s Game 2 because their pitch count stayed under the 25-pitch mark each. Junior Kris Jones pitched the final 2.2 innings in relief, and even though he took the loss, his outing should be noted because he entered the night with only 1.1 innings under his belt. McCardle tried to save Jones for the later innings, he said after the game.
Jones struck out three, walked two and allowed three runs – one earned – on two hits. Jones came back to the team midseason after recovering from a knee injury that he suffered in the fall during football season.
“You can tell those guys have been here before,” McCarlde said of Gulfport. “As everybody in the stands can tell, our guys haven’t been here before, but I was really proud of how we battled.”
Sophomore Luke Lyon (6-5, 1.92 ERA) will start Game 2 Friday for Oak Grove. Jones and Swistak are unavailable to pitch in Game 2 due to the pitch count rules, but if there’s a Game 3, Jones can come back.
