CLEVELAND, Tenn.-For the second straight time in conference play, the Lee baseball team has pulled off a win in dramatic fashion. This time it was not by a walk-off homerun. A wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning allowed the Flames' fastest runner Malachi Cloud to score from third base and give his team the 5-4 victory over Union University.
The GSC contest was played at Larry Carpenter Stadium on Olympic Field on a rainy Friday evening. Cloud opened the ninth with a single and stole second. Riley Black came on as a pinch-hitter and was intentionally walked. Luke Hughes also pinch-hit for Ashton Simmons and drew a walk to load the bases, setting up a game-winning slide into home plate by Cloud and touching off the celebration.
The Flames will return to action on Saturday afternoon. It all begins with Military Appreciation Day at noon followed by the doubleheader slated for the first pitch at 1 p.m. against the same Union team. All veterans from the area will be honored during the day of celebration.
The unusual evening had its share of standouts. The Flames seemed to take control in the early innings by putting solo runs on the board in the first and second innings. Noah Hattier opened the contest with a one-base hit and later scored Lee's first run. Isaac Quinones homered in the second to make it 2-0.
Lee put two more crooked numbers on the scoreboard in the third. Hattier did his part with a triple and scored on Dylan Standifer's two-base hit. Standifer would tally on a two-base RBI stroke by Cam Suto to make it 4-0.
The Flames had a total of nine hits with Hattier, Standifer, Suto and Cloud collecting eight of the nine. Quinones had the other. Union scored a single tally in the fourth inning and came back to tie the game with three big runs in the sixth. Carson Chavies, Britt Netterville, and Blake Barrett doubled and singled for the Bulldogs while Mitch Sisk also had two hits.
Sam Poindexter took charge the rest of the way for the Bulldogs and did not allow another score through the next six innings. He allowed eight hits, three earned runs, fanned four and walked one while throwing 121 pitches. Ryan Evans (4-4) came on to pitch the ninth. He gave up a hit, one earned run and walked two. The right-hander was charged with the loss.
Cameron Land started and gave the Flames 5.1 innings of solid work. He allowed eight hits and only two earned runs. Tim Gooden came on in the sixth and ran into trouble. He retired two hitters and gave up three hits and two earned runs.
Big Sam Fulton turned in another outstanding role in relief. After allowing a double to begin the seventh inning, Fulton retired the next nine straight batters he faced, striking out six with a killer slider and improving his record to 5-2 on the year.
