Frankie Volkers and Tim Gooden combined to pitch a one-hitter against West Florida on Saturday afternoon in the second game of the GSC doubleheader at Jim Spooner Field. The Flames found a way to score a pair of runs and came away with the exciting 2-0 victory.
Lee held a 1-0 lead in the three-game series after Friday evening’s 7-3 win. West Florida evened the series with a 5-2 victory in the first game on Saturday. The second game win allowed the Flames to claim the series 2-1. It marked the 10th straight weekend that Coach Mark Brew’s team has won all 10 series. With the series win, Lee improved their record to 36-14 overall and 23-7 in GSC play while UWF fell to 27-20 overall and 17-13 in GSC play.
The Flames will move onto GSC tournament play, which begins on Friday in Oxford, Ala. The team will be top seeded in the eight-team double-elimination tournament.
Game 2 – Lee 2, West Florida 0 The final game of a three-game series has been a trouble spot for most of the season when it comes to pitching. Volkers and Gooden changed all that on Saturday afternoon in Pensacola.
Volkers (4-0) was pencil sharp for 5.2 innings. He allowed only one hit, struck out three and issued one free pass, that coming in the sixth inning. Gooden, who collected his sixth save, came onto strike out the Argonauts’ top hitter in the sixth inning. All totaled the smooth right-hander fanned three of the four batters he faced in 1.1 innings.
The Flames had a golden opportunity to take control of the contest in the top of the second inning. They loaded the bases with nobody out. Matthew Batts was hit by a pitch. Josiah Miller walked and Brantley Cutler attempted a sacrifice bunt which went for a hit to load the bases.
JJ Williams got credit for one of Lee’s two RBI on the day when he was walked with one out but West Florida got out of the jam by retiring Lee’s top hitter in Dylan Standifer and Cam Suto.
For Lee fans and likely the coaches, the score remained 1-0 until the top of the seventh inning in the seven-inning game. Williams started the seventh with a double to right. Ashton Simmons put down a bunt that moved Williams to third and Standifer picked up a key RBI with a single to left to make it a 2-0 game.
Suto was the only Flame with two hits while Miller and Williams doubled and Cutler had an infield hit for Lee’s only other base hit in the contest. Batts and Williams scored the all-important runs.
Cade Manderscheid (7-3) also pitched a solid game for West Florida. Over 6.1 innings he gave up five hits and two earned runs, walking two and striking out four. Gabriel Moorer retired the last two batters in the seventh inning. He gave up a hit and no runs. Trent Jeffcoat had the only hit for the Argos.
Game 1 – West Florida 5, Lee 2 The Flames collected 10 hits in the contest, but could never put them all together in the loss. In fact, the two runs came in the ninth inning when Luke Collier singled and Miller homered. Miller also singled in the loss and joined Riley Black as the only Flames to have two hits.
Standifer, Suto, Collier, Brock Sisson and Cutler also hit safely for the Flames. Lee left two runners on base in the first, sixth and ninth innings. Keegan Gagliardo (8-1) suffered his first pitching loss. In six innings, he allowed seven hits, three earned runs, walked four and struck out six. Ty Cobb came on for two innings and gave up five hits and two earned runs.
The Argonauts did all their damage with 10 singles and took advantage of a couple of Lee fielding errors. Darrien McDowell had two hits and scored two runs. Jackson Gradsky was 2-for-2 with a run scored and a RBI. Cade Easterbrook and Zach Stokes joined the two-hit parade. Stokes also knocked in two runs and Easterbrook scored once.
Dalton Neuschwander (5-4) was the winning pitcher. In seven innings, he allowed five hits and no earned runs, striking out five and walking two. Major Posey was called on for the final two innings and gave up five hits and two earned runs.