Gainesville, GA – the Gol ‘Diggers were looking for a series sweep of the Atlanta Crackers on Saturday night. The Crackers had men in scoring position for both the First and Second innings, but Gainesville Starter Tyler Martin held them scoreless. What Martin was able to do Crackers started Christian Donaldson was able to do better. Donaldson retired the first 6 batters he faced in order, allowed a walk in the start of the third inning then retired the next 3 in order.

In the top of the third inning, the Crackers were able to break through with a big inning scoring 5 runs. A walk and two singles started the inning to load the bases, and Jaden Anderson earned an RBI walk to score the first run in the game. The big blow came on the next batter Kaleb Huffman when he hit a hard line drive down the first base line for a 3 RBI triple. Jason Avila finished the 5-run third inning with an RBI single to score Huffman.

Jacques Walker led the home half-off in the bottom of the fourth inning with a double and Zack Zavala was hit by a pitch. This would set up a successful double-steal attempt and lead to a run on an errant throw. Two batters later the Gol ‘Diggers scored their second run on a Matthew Lee sac fly that scored Zavala.

The Cracker answered back on a Kaleb Huffman two-run homerun that bounced off the top of the right-center scoreboard. Huffman was locked in for this game going 2-4 with 5 RBIs, a Homerun, and a Triple.

As the sun was starting to set it made it increasingly difficult for the batters in the sixth and seventh innings. The fourteen batters that came to the plate in those two innings saw one hit by each team. When the eighth inning rolled around the Crackers had a five-run lead and pitching that looked unhittable, but the Gol ‘Diggers were not going away.

A new pitcher was on the mound for the Crackers to start the eighth inning and the first two Gol ‘Diggers batters made him work. Tanner Patterson earned a walk on 10 pitches to start the home half, then Eliud Poventud earned a walk on 8 pitches. This set up a three-run blast to right-center off Daniel Bell’s bat that put the Gol ‘Diggers right back into the game. The eighth inning ended with the Gol ‘Diggers being down 7-5.

Gainesville started the ninth inning with a new pitch of their own but was having location issues. The Crackers got the first two batters on base with a walk and a hit, but two wild pitches led to a run.

In the ninth, the Crackers were holding onto an 8-5 lead and put in their closer Davis Williams. The Gol ‘Diggers got a walk and a hit on two of their first three batters that set up a 2 run double hit by Tyler Triche. The Gol ‘Diggers had two runners on with one out when Williams got the ground ball he was hoping for, and the Crackers were able to turn the double play to secure the win.