FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
CARY, N.C. – Freshman Jeff May went 2-for-3 with a solo homer to spark the Blue team to a 2-0 win over the White squad in game three of North Carolina’s Fall World Series Friday at Cary’s USA Baseball Complex. Despite Friday’s Blue victory, White captured the first best-of-three series, 2-1.
Pitching continued to be the story, as the teams combined for just six total runs over the three games of series one.
Blue starter Patrick Johnson went 4 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and three walks, while striking out five. White starter Bryant Gaines was also sharp, striking out six and walking none over 5 1/3. He scattered six hits, including May’s home run in the fifth.
Lefty Brian Moran followed Johnson with 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, and Nate Striz closed with 1 2/3 innings to earn the save.
In addition to May’s two-hit day for Blue, Mike Cavasinni, Greg Holt and Ryan Graepel each added two hits apiece for White, which stranded 13 base runners.
After the White squad left the bases loaded in the second and stranded two in the bottom of the fourth, May connected on the first pitch he saw from Gaines in the fifth for a solo homer to left center for a 1-0 lead and the first run of the series for the Blue team.
White threatened to tie the score in the bottom of the inning when Ryan Norton tripled down the right field line off the glove of a diving Seth Baldwin two out, but Moran came out of the pen to induce an inning-ending pop up to third by Kyle Seager to preserve the lead.
In the sixth, singles by Holt and Graepel put runners on the corners for White, but Moran got Mike McKee to line to Baldwin in right to end the inning. White threatened once again in the seventh, putting runners on second and third with just one out, but Moran forced Seager to ground to first and struck out Mark Fleury to hold on to the one-run cushion.
Blue doubled its lead in the eighth when Ben Bunting singled up the middle off Logan Munson, took third on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on an RBI groundout by Garrett Gore for a 2-0 advantage.
White put two more runners on in the ninth, but Striz worked out of the jam to avoid the series one sweep.
The second best-of-three series will begin at 2:30 p.m. Monday in Cary. Saturday’s game has been cancelled.
