Strong Pitching, Timely Hitting Leads Purple To 4-0 Intrasquad Win
October 20, 2014 | Baseball
SEATTLE – The Purple team beat the Gold squad, 4-0, Monday in the first game of the Purple and Gold World Series at Husky Ballpark to take the 1-0 advantage in the best-of-three series. The Purple team scored twice in the fifth inning and added runs in the sixth and seventh to support a combined one-hitter by three pitchers.
Winning pitcher Will Ballowe allowed a first-inning double to No. 3 hitter Braden Bishop, which turned out to be the only hit for the Gold side. Ballowe went the first four innings before giving way to Brandon Choate (2 IP) and Ryan Schmitten (1 IP) in the seven-inning contest.
The Gold squad received an outstanding starting effort of their own from Troy Rallings, who went 4 1/3 innings. Rallings allowed just one base runner through the first four innings before getting into trouble in the top of the fifth. He hit lead-off batter Will Sparks, who advanced to second on a ground out before coming around to score on a double to right-center field by freshman Shane Olson.
Mack Gaul came on in relief and promptly allowed an infield single to freshman J.T. Williams to put runners on the corners. After a groundout advanced Williams to second, Jack Meggs followed with a two-out single that scored Olson. Williams tried to score from second, but he was out on an excellent throw from right fielder Mitch Bevacqua to home that kept the score 2-0.
Purple would tack on a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Sparks and another run in the seventh on a RBI double off the right field wall hit by Meggs.
Meggs was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and a double and Williams was 2 for 3 with a stolen base and a run scored to lead the Purple offense.
The game was played in front of a nice crowd with beautiful weather. Among those in attendance were Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman and former Husky Jacob Lamb. Others ex-Huskies to be spotted in the crowd were recent draft picks Trevor Mitsui (Arizona Diamondbacks), Jeff Brigham (Los Angeles Dodgers), Trevor Dunlap (Tampa Bay Devil Rays), Jared Fisher (Philadelphia Phillies) and Erik Forgione (Pittsburgh Pirates).
Game two is scheduled for Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The final game of the series is slated for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
Game 1: Purple 4, Gold 0
Purple leads series 1-0
Purple 000 021 1 –- 4 6 0
Gold 000 000 0 –- 0 1 0
Purple: Will Ballowe, Brandon Choate (5), Ryan Schmitten and Austin Rei. Gold: Troy Rallings, Mack Gaul (5) and Zach Bonneau. W – Ballowe. L – Rallings. Sv – none. HR – none. 3B – none. 2B – Purple: Shane Olson, Jack Meggs; Gold: Braden Bishop. SB – Purple: J.T. Williams, Branden Berry.
