The Bulloch Academy baseball team entered the weekend with an 0-5 record. Saturday, they picked up their first win with an impressive 12-2 victory over Pinewood. Monday the Gators weren’t as sharp, but luckily for them they were sharp on the mound - literally - and were able to knock off First Presbyterian 5-3 Monday night at Gator Alley.  

The Gators didn’t hit particularly well, and committed four errors in the field, but pitcher Spencer Sharp kept them in the game. Sharp threw a complete game with 11 strikeouts and did not walk a single Highlander player in helping the Gators to their second straight victory.

“Any time he’s on the mound we feel like we have a fighting chance,” said coach Michael Sumner. “Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he keeps us in every game. I thought we came out kind of flat, but we were able to pull out the victory which was important.”

While the Gators didn’t have the big hits, they had in Saturday’s win over Pinewood, they were able to manufacturer runs when they needed to with aggressive baserunning and opportunistic hitting.

“We didn’t hit the ball like we did Saturday,” said Sumner. “It kind of felt like we had a bit of a hangover from that win over Pinewood. I told the team that a good team can win the ugly games and that’s what we did tonight. In years past we usually lost the ugly games and scratched our heads afterward. Tonight, we got it done by moving runners and playing unselfishly.”

The Gators started the scoring in the first inning on an RBI single to left by Avery Anderson. The Highlanders respond in the top of the second on an RBI double to right by Tyler Crosby. Crosby attempted to stretch the double into a triple but was thrown out by Gator right fielder Jack Conner.

The Gators grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third as a bloop to right field by Bryson Scott fell in for a hit allowing Carter Snipes to score. The Highlanders came right back to tie the game on another RBI double to right-center by Crosby to make the score 2-2.

In the bottom of the fifth the Gators took the lead for good. With runners on second and third Scott hit a dribbler back to the mound. Miller Pope hustled home ahead of the throw for a 3-2 Gator lead. Conner followed that up with a deep fly ball to right field which allowed Cash Vickery to score easily from third for a 4-2 lead.

Logan Dore got the Highlanders within one with a single to center that would get past the Gators outfielder and roll to the fence to make it 4-3. The Gators answered that run with one themselves in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on second and third a Carter Snipes squeeze bunt brought home Sawyer from third to make it 5-3.

The Highlanders threatened again in the top of the seventh as they put runners on second and third and had the go-ahead run step to the plate, but Sharp ended the game with a strikeout for the Gator victory.

The win improves the Gators record to 2-5 (1-2). Up next Bulloch Academy is scheduled to play Tuesday at 6:00 at Tattnall County.