Wednesday's doubleheader to start the Class A baseball series between Providence Christian and George Walton Academy was a tale of two blowouts won by different teams.
Providence Christian opened the series with an 18-3 win in three innings (due to the mercy rule). George Walton then fought back to take a 10-2 win and force a third game, scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday.
Providence jumped all over George Walton in the opener. The Bulldogs led 3-0 going to the bottom of the first but Providence's first seven batters reached. Tyler Brown led off with a double and scored on an Austin Loyd single. After two more hits plated runs, Nick Stidham launched a three-run home run to give Providence a 5-3 lead. Stephen Slaughter doubled and Erich Stahl was hit by a pitch. After the next two were out, Brown hit his own three-run home run, the second of the inning. Loyd and Christin Stewart were on when Smith drove in two more with a double for a 10-3 lead.
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Providence scored eight more in the second inning. Alan Skinner and Slaughter each had two-run doubles in the inning. Glenn Williamson threw 51 pitches and had five strikeouts in the game.
But in the second game, George Walton starter Kyle Leach was masterful as the Bulldogs rebounded to win 10-2. The Bulldogs hit three home runs and Leach pitched a complete game giving up single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Stidham hit his second home run of the day in the sixth.
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"He [Leach] likes big games like this when we had to win," said George Walton manager Todd Shelnutt. "He threw incredible." Leach scattered eight hits. Leach walked only three, all three intentional to Christin Stewart. Only one out was recorded by an outfielder.
"We had a little pow wow [in between games] and they knew they didn't come to play," Shelnutt said. "They were determined to try to make it to game three."
Providence coach Adam Cantrell, on the other hand, was proud of game one but obviously disappointed with the effort in game two.
"I don't know if we'll have an advantage or not," Cantrell said about playing at home. "They are going to be the home team. They have the momentum right now. They are a big momentum team. Coming off of game one we obviously had the momentum and we decided we wanted to make things fair. They played well and earned it. We didn't play our best. It's not going to matter what the momentum is going to look like tomorrow if we don't play our best. If we play our best I feel fine with our chances."
