Parkview, North Rally to Game 3

North Gwinnett rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning — including the game-winner coming on Cole Willoughby’s one-out single — to beat Parkview 5-4 in Lilburn Wednesday night, forcing the deciding game in the best-of-three Class AAAAA baseball series.

The rally, which came after Parkview impressively rallied to win 11-10 in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, prevented the Bulldogs from being swept out of the playoffs.

Game 3 is scheduled Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. at Parkview.

Wednesday's hard-fought doubleheader was a testament of the value of never giving up.

First, Parkview showed its mettle. The Panthers looked completely out of it in the opener.

North Gwinnett built an 8-1 lead with a four-run fourth inning, including Connor Jenkins’ three-run home run to left-center field. The Bulldogs scored in each of the first four innings, while Parkview, outside of Matt Olson's first-inning solo homer, couldn't find a key hit.

But Parkview turned the game upside-down in the bottom of the fifth, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs to take a 9-8 lead. Josh Hart, who was 5-for-8 in the doubleheader, had a double, a homer, two RBIs and scored two runs n the inning,. Travis Naraine added a two-run single and Ryan Blanton a two-run double as the Panthers took advantage of six hits and two walks, and scored four runs after two outs.

Jeff Ronpin tacked on two more runs in the sixth with his two-run home run to make it 11-8, before North Gwinnett tightened things up on its final at-bat, scoring twice on four hits. Parkview relief pitcher Jack Esmonde got a double play and a strikeout to cut the rally short.

Hart led Parkview’s offense with three hits and two RBIs. Olson added three runs and Naraine, Blanton and Ronpin all had two RBIs. For North, Kenny Knudsen had a two-run home run, Ryan Hagan had two hits and two RBIs, and Willoughby and Alex Kimble each had two hits and scored two runs.

The fireworks of the first game fizzled in the second. The teams combined for 24 hits in the opener, but just 16 in the second. The game went scoreless until Edwin Arias and Olson hit back-to-back homers for a 2-0 Parkview lead in the fourth. North pulled to within 2-1 on a wild pitch in the fifth, Naraine’s RBI single pushed it back to 3-1 and North made it 3-2 on an errant pickoff throw that allowed a run to score. Blanton’s RBI single put the Parkview lead back to two at 4-2 in the top of the seventh, before North’s game-winning rally.

Arias went 3-for-4 and Hart 2-for-4 for Parkview and Seth Bancroft and Brian Woodruff each had two hits for North.