Wednesday, October 08, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 8, 2008) - The Blue team took a 3-1 lead in the 10^th annual Blue/Gold World Series Wednesday afternoon defeating the Gold squad 7-4 at Cardinal Park.

Taylor Gouffon (Knoxville, Tenn.) pitched five innings for the Blue, allowing four runs on seven hits and striking out two in the win.

In the bottom of the first, Paul Hoilman (Johnson City, Tenn.) blasted a two-run home run over the right field fence to give the Blue squad an early 2-0 lead. Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) added to lead in the bottom of the second as he drove in Cory Betterson (Lithonia, Ga.) on a grounder to first to make the score 3-0 Blue.

Senior Chris Rankhorn (Gallatin, Tenn.) got the Gold team on the board in the top of the third as he singled to center scoring Jacob Fabry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) from second to cut the Blue advantage to 3-1. Later in the inning, Chas Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) doubled to left center bringing in Danny Petro (Atlanta, Ga.) to bring the Gold team within a run, 3-2.

Petro kept the Gold scoring going in the top of the fourth when he launched a two-run blast of his own over the left field fence to put the Gold team in front, 4-3. The lead would be short lived though, as Derek Trent (Kingsport, Tenn.) touched-them-all in the bottom half of the inning hitting a grand slam over the fence in right to give the Blue team a 7-4 lead after four.

Ty Sarchet (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Dustin Plumlee (Powell, Tenn.) combined to throw two scoreless innings for the Blue team as they held on to win their third straight in the series.

Offensively, Byrne led the Gold team with three hits including two doubles, while Hoilman and Betterson each had two hits for the Blue squad.

Game five of the series is scheduled for Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at Cardinal Park. Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on ETSU baseball or any other Buccaneer athletic team.