- Ruiz was 2-for-4 with a home run, 2 R and two RBI’s in first game victory.
The Savannah Sand Gnats and the Lexington Legends played a double header Sunday at Grayson Stadium.
Savannah won both games 5-0 and 3-1.
In game one, Sand Gnats starter John Gant tossed a complete game, and was almost perfect allowing only one hit, walked one and struck out eight in the seven inning game. The lone hit for the Legends came in the sixth inning.With the shutout win, Gant is now 10-5.
Savannah bats were hot as they scored three runs in the 3rd inning on five hits. Second baseman Jonathan Johnson reached first on a fielding error and advanced to second on a pass ball. Johnson scored on Yexion Ruiz’s second home run of the season, which was a lone drive over the left field fence. After Champ Stuart and Dominic Smith both singled, Matthew Oberste also singled, but Stuart was thrown out at the plate trying to score. A double by Nelfi Zapata driving in Smith to put the Sand Gnats up 3-0.
In the 5th inning, Savannah scored two more runs when Ruiz led off with a bunt single, Stuart then reached base on an error and Smith singled to drive in both runs.
Sand Gnats had 11 hits for the game. Smith was 3-for-3 with two RBI’s and a run scored.
In the second game, Savannah scored a run in the first inning when Patrick Biondi led off with a single, advancing to second on a ground out and scoring on a single by Oberste.
In the 4th inning, Sand Gnats added another run. Smith and Cole Frenzel both walked, and Jorge Rivero singled to load the bases. A sac fly by Victor Cruzado scored Smith to make the score 2-0.
In the 5th inning, Lexington’s first baseman Fred Ford hit a home run over the left field fence for the Legends only run. It was the 8th home run of the season for Ford.
In their half of the 5th inning, Savannah scored the go ahead run when Stuart walked, advanced to second on a throwing error and scored on a Smith single.
Savannah starter Alex Panteliodis, tossed six innings, allowed only one run on five hits, no walks, and struck out two. He improved his record to 3-2 on the season.
Reliever Akeel Morris, earned his 9th save pitching the 7th inning, while walking one and striking out one.
Matt Oberste hit safely in both games to extend his hitting streak to 20 games.
The announced attendance was 905.
The final game of the series starts at 7:05 pm Monday at Grayson Stadium.
Thanks for the article, Wally. I’m wondering what you think about Matthew Oberste? I notice that he is used as mainly a 1B or DH. I also noticed that he didn’t do too well last year in Brooklyn. For the fun of it, I put in his daily logs, and calculated his running BA, OBP, SLG, and OPS. The day before the start of his current hitting streak he had a slash of 232/303/323/626. Now his slash is at 325/379/498/877, with all those numbers rising steadily over the course of the streak. Clearly, he looks very good right now. Has he just found his own, or do you expect him to fall back to the pack? He’ll be 23 in another month, so could it be that he’s playing against younger kids, and just hit a maturation point?
Chuck, Wally will answer your question soon, sorry he has just been having log on to do so.
From Wally: Matt Oberste has one error this season. Watching him play first base at Grayson Stadium, he has made all the plays. I expect he will continue to hit the rest of the season. The question is when will he be promoted to St.Lucie, this season or next?