SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Timely hitting and solid work from the bullpen helped propel the Park University Gilbert baseball team (7-3) to a 5-4 win over Ottawa University (Ariz.) (0-4) in game one of a three game road series at Surprise Stadium.
"Can't say enough about the job our bullpen did tonight," said Park Gilbert head coach Kelly Stinnett. "Nevan and Jose gave us a little scare there in the ninth, but Jose made some clutch pitches to a tough hitter to close the door."
Jose Zubia came in with two outs in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on first and second. After walking the first batter, he proceeded to entice Spirit leadoff hitter Jared Crockett to ground out to secure the win and pick up his third save on the season. Buccaneers right hander Chase Provencio picks up the win with three innings of scoreless relief.
Offensively, the Bucs jumped on the board first in the top of the second as centerfielder Payton Price drove in first baseman Connor Williams with a sacrifice fly after Williams led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a walk to third baseman Dylan Lindsey and a single by right fielder Bryce Beck.
The Spirit answered with a run in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth, but this is familiar territory for Park Gilbert against Ottawa. In their last matchup in the Maricopa Cup, the Bucs trailed by five before making a late inning comeback to win. While the deficit this time was not as large, a comeback was still in the cards and it took solid work by the bullpen to keep Ottawa on the number at three and clutch hitting to pull it off.
The sixth started innocuously enough as Julian Garcia-Schroeder walked but then Cade Maestas grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and it looked as though the inning would go scoreless as the last three had done prior. But Hugo Acosta bunted for a hit to get things started, cleanup hitter Alex Moreno followed with a walk and then Williams got his second hit on the evening; a single to center to drive in Acosta for the first run as Moreno scampered to third. Senior transfer Anton Melendez came in to pinch run for Williams and promptly stole second. Then Lindsey had the definition of a quality at bat. He saw nine pitches, fouling off four in a row before crushing a double to left center to score Moreno and Melendez to give the Buccaneers a 4-3 lead.
In the top half of the seventh, catcher Austin Chouinard took the second pitch he saw and blasted his first home run as a Buccaneer to left field to give his team a two-run cushion they would ultimately need to secure victory. This was the second home run for Park Gilbert on the season, both against Ottawa, but this was the first one to go over the fence. Maestas had an inside-the-park home run the last time these two squads met.
Every Buccaneer reached base safely on the evening and all but one of them reached via hit. Williams had two hits for his first multi-hit game of the season. Maestas continued his love affair with Spirit pitching, getting two doubles on the night. In two contests, Maestas is now 4-8 with two doubles, a home run, three runs scored four RBI's and two walks against Ottawa.
On the bump, Bucs starter Luke Richards went 2 2/3 innings allowing only one hit and one run while striking out three. He gave way to Frank Racioppo who gave up the two runs in an inning and a third. Provencio then proceeded to give Park Gilbert that opportunity to make their comeback as he threw three scoreless innings, allowing only three hits, one walk and two strikeouts. He picks up his first win on the season.
Nevan Gillespie looked as though he was going to close out the game as he easily got the first two outs in the ninth. Then a triple, a hit batsman and a single to cut the lead to one ended the night for the right hander and brought in Zubia for the closing heroics.
The win is the fifth in a row for the Buccaneers. They will attempt to stretch the winning streak to six in game two of the series tomorrow. The game will start at 6 p.m. at Surprise Stadium.
