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Game 1: Zac Ryan (White) vs. Ben Parr (Gold)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 19 | 0 |
| Gold | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
W: Zac Ryan || L: Ben Parr
The White Team pitchers nearly combined for a no-hitter, taking it all the way to the ninth inning, as the annual White-Gold Series got its start with a 15-0 victory for the White Team.
In addition to the 15 runs scored by the White Team, they also used 19 hits to get there with all but one player in the starting line-up getting at least one hit.
Grant Wruble, Tristin English and Justin Bryan all went 3-for-5 in the game. Wruble drove in four runs, while English and Bryan combined for 3 RBI. Another key offensive stat for the White team is that they only struck out four times, while the Gold Team struck out 10 times.
Zac Ryan got the start for the White Team. In his 3.0 innings of work, Ryan was perfect. He gave up no hits and no walks and struck out four batters. Coming in relief of him in the fourth inning was freshman RHP Burton Dulaney. He also went three innings and was nearly perfect, just giving up a walk, but he also struck out a batter. Pitching the final three innings for the Jackets was Matt Phillips. He gave up the only hits of the game, the first to Connor Justus in the ninth inning and also struck out five batters.
Game 2: Brandon Gold (Gold) vs. Cole Pitts (White)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 1 |
| White | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
W: Micah Carpenter || L: Robert Winborne || S: Joe Wiseman
After getting crushed by the White Team in Game 1, the Gold Team worked their way through what was a pitching duel through most of Game 2 to even up the series after a 4-3 victory.
Going to the mound for the Gold Team in Game 2 was Brandon Gold, who had a bit of a surprising duel with Cole Pitts (0-6, 6.90 ERA last season). They went a combined 6.0 innings, giving up just two hits and striking out seven batters between the two of them.
The great pitching didn't end there. After Gold and Pitts left the game, two freshman pitchers came into the game: Keyton Gibson for Gold and Bobby Gavreau for White. Combined, Gibson and Gavreau pitched another six scoreless innings and struck out five.
And the the offense for both teams showed up. With the score 1-1 in the top of the eighth inning, Brandon Gold came up to the plate and connected on an RBI double to give the Gold Team a lead they wouldn't relinquish. The next batter -- Ryan Peurifoy -- would put the final runs of the game for the Gold Team on the board with a two-run single.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the White Team nearly managed a comeback after Joe Wiseman gave up two runs after the White Team loaded the bases with nobody out. Three easy groundball outs later and the game was finished, and the series was tied at a game apiece.
Game 3: Patrick Wiseman (White) vs. Jonathan Hughes (Gold)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| Gold | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
W: Patrick Wiseman || L: Jonathan Hughes || S: Zac Ryan
In the rubber game of the White-Gold series, the White Team was able to take a lead in the first inning of the game, which was all they would need en route to their 4-2 victory and series win.
After Arden Pabst put the White Team on the board in the top of the first, freshman Tristin English came up to the plate. With a couple of runners on, English hit a two-run single to make the score 3-0.
The Gold Team would try to stay on board, but Patrick Wiseman and the White Team pitchers weren't letting them do anything. Wiseman went 3.0 innings and earned the win after giving up just one run on four hits and striking out four.
From beginning to end, the White Team pitched pretty well with Zac Ryan closing things out and earning the White Team's lone save of the series. Ryan sat down the three batters he faced in order and struck one of them out.
The pitching for the Gold Team wasn't terrible. The only guy that didn't pitch particularly well was the starter Jonathan Hughes. Hughes went 3.0 innings and gave up four runs on five hits and didn't have any strikeouts. The other two pitchers (Bailey Combs and Andrew Duncan) combined for 6.0 innings of one-hit ball while striking out six batters. But the offense was never able to get anything going against the White Team and fell 4-2.
Overall Takeaways and Stats
- The most exciting thing about the White-Gold series this year was to see a lot of these freshman from this year's No. 4 ranked class. Take Tristin English, for example. He led both teams in batting average (.566), RBI (6) and slugging percentage (.615).
- It was also really nice to see Cole Pitts pitch a good game. Hopefully, he finally has everything figured out and will be good to go for this season.
- Speaking of pitchers, two things disappointed me a little bit. First of all, Jonathan King was nowhere to be found. I'm not entirely sure what's going on with that, so any information would be great. The other thing that disappointed me was the performance of Jonathan Hughes. It was his first game pitching at this talent level, so I am willing to forgive him for that, though.
- You can check out the Box Score for Game 1 here: Link.
- You can check out the Box Score for Game 2 here: Link.
- You can check out the Box Score for Game 3 here: Link.
- You can check out the full stats for the White Team here: Link.
- You can check out the full stats for the Gold Team here: Link.
- You can check out the photo gallery courtesy of Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics here: Link.