Gnats Can't Overcome Rough Outing from Pants

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Greenville Drive

August 24, 2014

Alex Panteliodis @ Trey Ball

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Savannah	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	3		5	7	2
Greenville	2	0	4	0	0	2	0	0	X		8	14	1

Win: Ball (4-10, 4.98 ERA); Loss: Panteliodis (5-4, 4.46 ERA); Save: Taveras (4)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Paul Paez (4.19 ERA) – 3 IP, H, 6 SO, 1 GO: 1 FO, 1 IR – 0 S

Batters

Yeixon Ruiz – 1-4, BB, SB (15), GIDP

Champ Stuart – 1-3, R, HR (3), 2 RBI (26), BB, HBP, SO

Jon Leroux – 1-4, R, HR (3), RBI (9), 2 SO

Jorge Rivero – 1-4, R, SO

Colton Plaia – 1-4, R

Stefan Sabol – 2-3, R, RBI (54), BB, SB (16), SO

Recap:

            The Savannah Sand Gnats lost their fifth straight game Sunday afternoon, as Greenville finished a weekend sweep with an 8-5 victory. Gnats starter Alex Panteliodis had a rough start, allowing three extra bases hits in both the 1^st and 3^rd innings. The Gnats offense was also held quiet for most of the game, managing only three hits over the first eight innings. There were still some positives in the game though, as reliever Paul Paez continued his dominance of the SAL since returning from Brooklyn, and Champ Stuart and Jon Leroux went deep.

            Yeixon Ruiz led off the game with a single and stolen base, but the Gnats were unable to drive him in.

            Stefan Sabol got the Gnats moving towards their first run with a one-out single in the 3^rd. He would come around to score on a Champ groundout.

            Pants came out for the bottom of the 3^rd and faced 5 batters, but was unable to retire any of them. That’s when Paul Paez came in and started a very impressive outing. He’d retire the next three Drive hitters, including the first two via strikeout:

Tim Robertson swinging.

Jimmy Rider swinging.

            The Drive would get their leadoff hitter on in the 4^th, as a grounder to the SS Ruiz took a rough hop and ate him up. Paez recovered from the error to strikeout the side:

Wendell Rijo swinging.

Sam Travis swinging.

Franklin Guzman swinging.

            Paez came back out for the 5^th and worked around a leadoff single for a 1-2-3 inning. He’d pick up his sixth strikeout in the inning when he got Kevin Mager looking for the first out.

            After Paez shut the Drive down for three innings, Jon Leroux hit this solo homerun in the top of the 6^th, temporarily making it a 6-2 game.

            Unfortunately, the Drive would get two runs right back and hold onto an 8-2 lead into the 9^th.  The 9^th started nicely for the Gnats, but the deficit had grown too big to overcome. Jorge Rivero singled on the second pitch of his at bat, then Plaia followed with a first-pitch single, and Sabol came through with an RBI single on the second pitch of his at bat. Unfortunately, Ruiz followed with a double play ball hit to Rijo. Champ Stuart provided the last highlight of the night with his third blast of the year.

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— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) August 25, 2014