Gainesville, GA – the Gainesville Gol’Diggers hosted the Atlanta Crackers in their Semi-Final matchup on Saturday night. Saturday night was turned into a 7-inning doubleheader due to the poor field conditions on Friday night. The doubleheader meant that there was a possibility that one team could be eliminated Saturday night.

In game one we knew we had the potential of a pitching duel with the top 2 pitchers in the league in strikeouts starting. The Gol’Diggers starter Sahil Patel led the league in strikeouts with 41 and the Crackers starter Colt McKibben was second with 39. For the first five innings, this pitching matchup did not disappoint. McKibben was the first to give up a run in the second inning off a solo homerun hit by Caleb Daniel. Patel gave up a run in the fourth inning with a couple of hits by Davis Roesler and Breydon Divine that scored Jaden Anderson. That was all the scoring for the first six innings of game one. Patel went 5 innings pitched with 7 strikeouts and gave up 1 run on four hits. McKibben went 6 innings pitched with 7 strikeouts and gave up 1 run on three hits.

The seventh inning was a whole new ball game with both starting pitchers taken out of the game and both sides were looking for an opportunity to win game 1. The Crackers started the seventh inning with Kaleb Huffman, the SBL single season homerun record holder, who was intentionally walked. Breydon Divine later in the inning got a hit and Andrew Walton earned a walk to load the bases. Tyler Kelson came to bat with two outs and the bases loaded when he sent a high fly ball over the fence for a grand slam. This gave the Crackers a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. The Gol’Diggers got a lead-off hit by Makana Peters and Kade Smallwood followed him with a 2-run home run. Jayson Barber closed the game for the Crackers and earned the save by getting the next three batters out to secure the 5-3 Crackers victory.

Game two of the doubleheader was an elimination game with the Crackers winning game 1 they had the chance to dethrone the 2-time defending champion Gol’Diggers. The Crackers bats took the momentum from game 1 into the early part of game two, scoring 9 runs in the first two innings. In the first inning, the Crackers scored 4 runs on 3 hits, a walk and a hit by pitch but it was a 2-run error that scored two of the 4 runs. In the second inning, Davis Roesler hit the second Grand Slam of the day for the Crackers and Kaleb Huffman got an RBI hit. The Crackers in the first two innings had 8 hits, 5 walks, and scored 9 runs.

The final blow to the Gol’Diggers came in the fourth inning on a two-run home run hit by Gage Shaver giving the Crackers a 11-0 lead. The Gol’Diggers had their chances at mounting a comeback, but they left the bases loaded in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Three Crackers pitchers combined for the seven-inning shutout. Christian Donaldson, Jacob Autry, and Cason Engert combined for 8 strikeouts and allowed no runs on six hits.

Just three innings and 2 Grand Slams made the difference on Saturday night. In the final inning of game one the Crackers scored 4 runs on a Grand Slam and in the first two innings of game two the Crackers scored 9 runs with another Grand Slam coming in the second inning. The Crackers combined for 13 runs on 10 hits and 7 walks in those three innings. Meanwhile, their pitching combined in the two games had 17 strikeouts and gave up just 3 runs on 11 hits.

The Crackers will face the winner of the Carterville Cannons and Choccolocco Monsters series for the SBL Championship. Game three of the Cannons and Monsters is Monday night in Oxford and the Championship series will start Wednesday night