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Connolly’s two run single in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted Ledford to a thrilling 8-7 victory, bailing out a bullpen that struggled to say the least.
“I was looking for the fastball,” Connolly said. “I was sitting back and didn’t want to swing at anything off-speed. I was just trying to put the ball in play, score some runs and win this thing.”
Ricky Vaughn started the game for the Panthers and pitched three effective innings before handing the ball off to the LHS pen with a 2-0 lead. Cory Alcon came in and threw a solid fourth inning but that is where praise ends as Grimsley found the Panthers relief pretty relieving. The Whirlies struck two-out gold in the fifth, plating three runs off two hits and an error. Alcon registered two outs only to yield a long RBI double to Andrew Faircloth and a run scoring bloop single by Matt Netteshiem, tying the game at two. A tricky hop at short led to a Vaughn error and suddenly Grimsley led 3-2.
As if woken up from a nap, the Panther offense snatched the lead back in the bottom of the frame with a three-spot. Vaughn doubled in Jacob Scott and later scored on a wild pitch, pushing LHS back in front 4-3. Justin Livengood provided some insurance, blasting a deep homerun to left-field off southpaw starter George Carter as the Panthers led by a pair.
“Hopefully a game like this will help us down the road,” LHS coach Chris Adams said. “I wasn’t as pleased as I would like to be with the effort we got from the fifth inning on. To their credit, they are a pretty good hitting team. We just didn’t do a go job up there. We were able to find a way to get it done.”
Travis Vogler got handed a two-run lead in the top of the sixth and simply couldn’t do anything with it. A lead-off single turned into a tie game after Carter unloaded a shot to right that cleared everything, knotting the score at five. Four pitches later, Gabe Dimock took advantage of Vogler’s control issues, lining a rocket over the fence in left for a 6-5 Whirlies’ lead.
Luke Ledwell scored on a wild pitch an inning later to tie the game again, but Vogler again couldn’t hold it, yielding an RBI double in the top of the seventh that surged Grimsley back in front. Trailing 7-6, the Panthers loaded the bases with one out for Connolly in the bottom of the seventh. Connolly, who struck out looking in his first plate appearance, got enough of a 1-2 offering from reliever D.J. Ross to find the outfield, plating two and giving Ledford its sixth win in as many tries.
“You just have to go up there hacking,” said Connolly. “This is an awesome win. That’s a great ball team. They have had great runs lately and this is a huge win for us.”
Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 233, or at eliotduke@hotmail.com.