Written by Biko Skalla:
The Nanners improved to 4-0 on the summer over the Blowfish with a wild 6-5 win in Lexington County Baseball Stadium. The guys trailed at two different points in the game before using a three-run seventh inning to jump ahead for the third and final time of the night.
The fellas didn’t take long to get started, as Drew, The Armadillo Assassin, Yniesta, lined the first pitch of the game up the middle for a single. He would make it across the diamond to third on a pair of groundouts and then score the first run of the night on a wild pitch. In the bottom of the first, Josh, Where There’s a Way There’s a, Willitts, worked around a two-out triple from Braylin, Sub, Marine, to toss a scoreless frame.
Josh and Lexington County’s starter, Trey, Take Off, Hoser, Pooser, exchanged scoreless second and third innings and Pooser worked around two two-out singles from Bryson, OK, Bloomer, and Taylor, Swift, Justice, in the fourth to keep the Blowfish within one run. Willitts collected his fourth straight strikeout to start the bottom half of the inning, but then Marine stroked a solo-home run to tie the game. The next hitter, Brock, Rock the Clock, Vradenburg, launched a missile out to right-center to give the Blowfish back-to-back jacks and their first lead of the night.
Leading off the top of the fifth, Brody, The Greek God of Picks, Wortham, lined a single to left where the ball was muffed by Tristan, Bruschetta, Bissetta, allowing Brody to take second base. With one down, Armando, Taekwondo, Becerra, lined a single to left and then with two outs Mando swiped second. On an 0-2 pitch to Bryce, I Deserve Three Courtesy RBI’s Tonight, Madron, a breaking ball in the dirt went to the backstop allowing Brody to come home to tie the game. With a dejected Pooser walking back towards the mound, Tyler, The Greek God of Sending Dudes Home, Gillum, sent Becerra barreling towards the plate. The underhand toss from Trey to his catcher, Ryan, I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Get This Last, Ouzts, beat Becerra by a hair but Armando’s slide knocked the ball out of Ouzts’ mitt giving the Nanners their second lead of the night, 3-2. Charlie, We’re Going to Candy Mountain, Fleming, came in for the bottom of the fifth and after a lineout to left and a walk, he got a perfect double play ball hit to him but his throw was offline to second allowing both guys to be safe. Funny enough on the next pitch another bouncer went straight towards Charlie, who wisely pulled his glove out of the way allowing Jack, RACK ATTACK, Renwick, to snag the ball, step on second and fire to first for an inning-ending double play.
Pooser kept the boys off the board in the top of the sixth and Charlie started the bottom half by plunking Cameron, #Beamed, Dean. The really unfortunate part of the beaming of Dean was that Marine was the next man up, and Braylin ripped an oppo taco to right for his second bomb of the night, putting Lexington County back on top 4-3. Gillum went with Andy, Donald Duck, Booth, for the dangerous lefty Brock Vradenburg and Andy got his man to groundout to first. Booth would walk Ouzts and get a flyout to right before inducing a bouncer to second that took a tough hop on Bloomer and kept the inning alive. Johnathan, Sike!, Johnson, pinch hit Wells, Josh’s Pee Pal, Sykes, who looped a flare to center to score Ouzts and extend the Blowfish lead to 5-3.
Lexington County went to CJ, I Walk the Line, Czerwinski to open up the top of the seventh. He immediately walked Brody, who advanced to second on a soft grounder to short and then was pushed to third on a single through the right side by Armando. You wouldn’t believe it but Brody would score on a wild pitch, the same way all three of the Nanners previous runs were notched. With Mando pushed up to second base, Livan, The Dominican Dominator, Reinoso, poked a single through the right side to score Becerra to tie the game at five. Bryce would walk and then with two outs Bloomer would take a free pass as well to load the bases. Justus worked a walk of his own to push in Livan and give the fellas their third lead of the evening, 6-5. Booth went back out to pickup a K and a groundout and then gave way to Hunter, Here’s Your Light Show, Entsminger, who got a grounder to complete the tag-team 1-2-3 frame.
Austin, Gage Voorhees Lite, Sandifer, kept the Nanners off the board in the eighth and ninth, and Hunter retired the first six men he faced before Wells Sykes rolled a ball over to short and beat the wrap for an infield single with two gone in the bottom of the ninth. With the tying run now on first and the go-ahead run in the box, Reece, Half River, Holbrook, worked a 3-2 count and on the eighth pitch of the at-bat went down swinging to end the ballgame.
It was a bizarre contest from start to finish, with the Bananas scoring their first four runs on three wild pitches and the Blowfish scoring their first four runs on three homers. Josh Willitts was stellar on the bump, going four innings of three hit, two-run, seven-strikeout ball. Andy Booth picked up the win with his inning and two thirds of relief in which he gave up one unearned run on a walk, a hit, and snagged one K along the way. Hunter Entsminger grabbed his second save in as many appearances, going two and a third scoreless innings while only allowing the one infield single and striking out three.
Nobody had an insane night hitting besides Marine for Lexington who had two taters and a triple, (woof), but Mando and Brody both scored a pair of runs and Madron reached base in three out of his five trips to the dish.
The boys continued to show they can win ballgames in a myriad of ways, as they had outscored Lexington County 36-3 over their previous three meetings and were able to grind out a tight win on the road Friday night. The Nanners return to Grayson to take on the Bacon on Saturday night, now riding a four-game winning streak. The pregame show will get going at 6:15pm eastern as we have a couple surprises up our sleeves for you and first pitch will be at 7:00pm, with it all going down on Bananas Insiders!