North Greenville comes away with a 3-2 victory in their first round match-up vs regional hosts and #2 seed Palm Beach Atlantic.
In a game that lived up to its billing, the Crusaders were locked in a true pitchers duel that was won by the staff ace Drew Provence. Provence was masterful, going the distance (complete game) and striking out seven, while scattering only four hits and allowing just two runs. Drew clearly elevates his game in clutch moments such as this, and while he was matched nearly pitch for pitch by the talented young right-hander Logan Thomas from PBA, he did enough in the critical moments to come out on top. The lasting image I will have of Provence day really sums up his outing: After the Sailfish loaded the bases with no-one out in the 2nd inning, Drew retired three of the next four batters on a strikeout, a pop-up, and a groundout...allowing only the one run to score.
Provence and the Crusaders benefited from key contributions by the team's senior leadership and freshman spark plugs. The game was won in the top of the 7th and final inning when Senior first baseman Tyler Callicutt's leadoff single translated into the game-winning run by virtue of a RBI Sacrifice Fly off the bat of Freshman third baseman Taylor Hollifield.
Coach Henson initially wanted Hollifield to lay down a safety squeeze bunt (the safety squeeze had already manufactured one run for NGU earlier in the game), but after two unsuccessful attempts he was forced to swing away. This ended up working to the Crusaders advantage after all, Hollifield lifted the next pitch deep enough into center field to score pinch runner Will Gladden with what turned out to be the winning run.
North Greenville trailed 1-0 early, then took a 2-1 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the 4th. Palm Beach answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the 4th and the game remained tied 2-2 until the seventh. The one run in the seventh left the final line score as follows...
NGU 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 -- 3 7 0 WP- Provence
PBA 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 -- 2 4 2 LP- Thomas
I cannot stress how huge this victory was for the Crusaders attempt to repeat as South Regional Champs. Palm Beach Atlantic was forced to turn right around and play an elimination game vs Emmanuel College at 3PM. The Crusaders will have an opportunity to rest this evening and await the news of tomorrow opponent in another Noon ET start. That opponent will be the winner of the other 3PM game this afternoon between Truett-McConnell (who defeated Emmanuel handily) and the Regional's #1 Seed Southeastern Fire.
The Crusaders come out of today's first round game both unscathed and battle-tested. I would also note, as Adam Taylor pointed out in our post-game interview, it is a major advantage for our guys not to have to play an additional game in the trademark Florida sunshine this afternoon. Though it has been quite breezy, temperatures are currently in the high 80's and low 90's. It is a tiring heat and it is very good news that they can opt to relax and be fresh for tomorrows game.
We will be on live again tomorrow. Let us apologize for technical problems we experienced at the beginning of our broadcast. We hope we have those solved for the remainder of the regional tournament. I think we were up from the 4th inning on without issues, so we anticipate no problems tomorrow and should be on air as scheduled by 11:50 AM.
If you were with us for the broadcast today, give us a shout out view email and let us know you're out there. Also if you have any questions you would like answered about the games, the team, or the area --feel free to comment or drop me an email as well. You can email me right off this page on the bottom right hand corner...I will do my best to get to them throughout the week.
Great day for the Crusaders...and a big win over a very talented team. They are now in position that a win tomorrow afternoon at Noon will place them back in the Regional Championship Game on Thursday.
I will update with the crusaders opponent and pitching match-up for tomorrows game as that information becomes available...
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