Cooke's Slam Sparks GWU's 6-4 Win over North Florida Thursday.
May 18, 2007 | Baseball
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Daniel Cooke's fifth inning grand slam
gave Gardner-Webb a 6-2 lead, and the Bulldogs hung on for a 6-4
win over North Florida Thursday night in A-Sun play.
Friday's first pitch was delayed nearly two hours by rain and
tornado watches in the Jacksonville area.
The win leaves Gardner-Webb (24-29, 11-14 A-Sun) tied with ETSU for
the sixth and final spot in the A-Sun Tournament with two games
left, and ETSU holding that tie breaker. The Bucs lost 23-15 at
Mercer Thursday night, and GWU needs to move past ETSU to secure a
bid to the A-Sun's dance.
GWU manufactured two runs in the top of the first, using singles by
Jamall Kinard and Jay McConnell to spark an early lead. After those
two safeties, Cooke drove in Kinard with a ground ball to
shortstop, and Nate MacDonald plated McConnell with a deep
sacrifice fly to right for a 2-0 lead.
North Florida's Jon Dandridge led off the bottom of the second with
home run to trim the lead to one run, belting an 0-2 fastball for
an opposite field shot. Jimmy Glanville followed with a sharp
single to left and – after a wild pitch – scored on a
sharp two-out double by No. 8 hole hitter Travis Martin to tie the
game. GWU starter Jonathon Ban got out of the frame with a
strikeout.
UNF ace Brad Johnson, who allowed just one run in an 8.0 inning
performance last season at Gardner-Webb, regained his form after
the first inning. The southpaw sat the Bulldogs down in order in
the second and third, striking out four during that stretch.
UNF took its lone lead of the game in the fourth, as Preston Hale
hit a solo home run with two outs to put the hosts up 3-2.
A walk, an error and a single would set the table for Cooke's
heroics in the fifth. The Charlotte, N.C., sophomore cranked a
first-pitch fastball from Johnson over the fence in left for his
fourth home run of the season and first career slam.
Ban worked through a scoreless fifth and sixth – and got
through the meat of the UNF order in the seventh – but allowed
a two-out solo shot to Chad Knight, his first of the year, and GWU
led just 6-4. Ban worked out of the inning with a shallow fly ball
and his bullpen would hold.
Gardner-Webb stranded four runners on base in their last two times
at the plate, squandering any chance of putting insurance runs
across – but another Charlotte native, senior Matt Tafazzoli
– closed out the game with 2.0 innings of relief work.
Ban (6-3) scattered five hits and fanned seven in 7.0 innings of
work to pick up the win, and Tafazzoli limited the Ospreys to just
one hit in 2.0 innings for his second save of the season.
McConnell (2-for-5, two runs) led Gardner-Webb's eight-hit night,
with Cooke (1-for-4, HR, 5 RBI) supplying much of the run
production.
North Florida (23-31, 12-13 A-Sun) collected six hits and hit three
solo home runs in the game. Dandridge (2-for-4) was the lone player
with more than one hit.
The two teams will wrap up the three-game series with a
doubleheader Friday at 1 pm ET at Harmon Stadium.
| Updated Season Stats (PDF) |
| GAME BOX: GWU 6, North Florida 4 |
