MONTEVALLO, Ala. – The Valdosta State Blazer baseball team swept the doubleheader versus the Montevallo Falcons to steal the road series and head back to Titletown on top. Valdosta State improves to 16-12 (10-8 GSC) while Montevallo dropped to 21-14 (12-6 GSC)
GAME ONE: VALDOSTA STATE: 12 MONTEVALLO: 11
Two straight hits by junior
Pedro Moreno and junior
Jovanni Canegitta had runners at second and third with no one out to open the first game of the series. Sophomore
Dennis Pierce hit a sacrifice fly to right to bring home Moreno and make it 1-0 VSU. Senior
Ryan Romano followed suit with a sac fly to center to have Valdosta State up 2-0 after one.
In the top of the second, two out hitting from sophomore
DJ Banks and
Pedro Moreno had the Blazers up 3-0 early.
Dennis Pierce continued his dominance as he drove in his second and third RBI of the game to put Valdosta State up 5-0 heading into the bottom of the second. The Falcons scored two in the bottom of the second off a two-run home run from Jake O'Connell as the Blazers still led 5-2 through two.
Montevallo continued the power in the bottom of the third, as Logan Harbin launched a three-run homer to tie the game at five through three innings.
Both teams went silent for a few innings, as VSU came back in the top of the sixth with another RBI from
Pedro Moreno to break the tie. On a perfectly executed double steal, Moreno stole second and Banks stole home to grow the lead to two as it was now 7-5 in favor of the Blazers. In the bottom of the sixth, the Falcons scored three runs, with two of them due to an error from the VSU 3B as UM took the lead and led 8-7 through six innings.
Valdosta State came back in the top of the seventh, as two walks gave senior
David Crawford a golden opportunity to tie it up, as he singled through the right side to tie it up yet again at eight apiece. In the bottom half, yet another error by the third baseman led to two runs coming around the score as the Falcons retook the lead and were now up 10-8.
Jovanni Canegitta started off the eighth with a solo shot to bring it back to a one-run game. In the bottom half, Montevallo retaliated with a solo shot of their own to make it 11-9 heading into the top of the ninth.
Down to their final three outs, senior
Jacob Harper led off the top half with a single before graduate student
Owen Lawn tied things up with a two-run homer to square it all up at 11. Sophomore
Raynel Ortiz came to pitch in the bottom of the ninth, as he held strong and kept things tied heading into the top of the tenth.
In the top of the tenth, catcher
Jacob Harper singled to left to bring home senior
Ryan Romano to give the Blazers an extra inning lead, as they were now up 12-11 heading into the bottom of the tenth. Junior
Nick Ferrara came in and shut down the Falcons to steal a 12-11 win in extras.
GAME TWO: VALDOSTA STATE: MONTEVALLO:
Jovanni Canegitta started things off in the top half of the first of game two with a groundout to bring home
Pedro Moreno as the Blazers led early. Two Falcons reached in the bottom of the first as sophomore
Anthony Martens was able to get out of a jam as it was 1-0 Blazers through one.
A two-out double from Moreno brought home two as Valdosta State continued to tack on in the top of the second.
Dennis Pierce singled to left to bring home Moreno as it was 4-0 early on.
Montevallo stole a run back in the bottom of the third in a double from Logan Harbin as Valdosta State was leading 4-1 through three.
David Crawford stole that run right back in the top of the fourth as he led off with a solo shot before
Ryan Romano singled to bring home
Dennis Pierce to make it 6-1 through four.
In the top of the sixth,
Dennis Pierce hit his second home run of the day to make it 9-3 as the Blazers swept the doubleheader and won the series versus the Montevallo Falcons.
The Blazers are back in action on Tuesday, April 2
nd at 5 p.m. versus Georgia College.
