Connor Pate, Piedmont Pride take doubleheader from Carolina Vipers

Connor Pate and the Piedmont Pride took Game 1 of a Southern Collegiate Baseball League doubleheader Friday against the Carolina Vipers with a fast start and deft defensive moves for a 3-2 victory at Winthrop Ballpark.

After a quick offensive burst in the first inning, the Pride struggled to get on base. Jonathan Embry knocked a fifth-inning homer to give Piedmont some insurance.

The Carolina Vipers knocked eight hits off of Pride pitchers, but the Pride’s defense held the Vipers scoreless until the top of the seventh inning. The Vipers drove in two runs off of an infield single and a shot to second base.

The Pride defense was highlighted by its ability to pick off runners. Catcher Bailey Montoya threw out two runners at second and Pate picked off four runners – six key outs for the Pride.

Pate went six innings with two strikeouts and a walk while allowing one earned run.

Turning Point

The Pride made it a habit to get on base early into the first. Embry, walked, moved swiftly around the bases and scored off of a Trey Logan infield single. Logan got to second on Sam Sustersic’s groundout and scored off of Caleb Robinson’s single to left field.

Critical Point

Pate, a Coastal Carolina product from McColl, took the mound to start the seventh and final inning of the game. After Pate walked the first batter, coach Joe Hudak went to Zach English in relief.

“He hasn’t thrown a lot. I think he was in relief down at Francis Marion so he really hadn’t thrown that high of a pitch count,” said Hudak. “Going into the inning, I thought I’d like to have him finish, but I thought if he got the first guy on, especially if he walked him, we had two guys ready so it was time.”

The Vipers ripped a double to left field, putting runners in scoring position with no outs. English gave up an infield single, driving in one run for the Vipers and advancing the runner to third. The Vipers then drove in their second run on a shot to second base. With a one run lead and one out, English forced a pop fly to right and a foul pop up to first baseman Chandler Redmond to end the game.

Star Contributions

Starter Pate gave up six hits in Game 1 of the doubleheader, but picked off four. In his second start for the Pride, Pate was three outs short of a complete game.

“My freshman year we worked hard on pickoffs at Coastal when I was there,” said Pate. So I took pride in that, I wanted to be the best at pickoffs.”

Montoya showed off his low pop time by picking off two runners trying to steal second.

“There were a lot of key plays on defense,” said Hudak. “He (Pate) picked two guys off and we picked two guys off of at second base. In a 3-2 ball game, those are four huge outs. Especially the ones at second, they’re in scoring position and we picked them off.”

But it was Embry’s homer that iced the game for the Pride.

“We got a big insurance lead from Johnny Embry,” Hudak said. “Two-zero is a pretty close ball game, I’m feeling a lot better going to the last inning 3-0 than 2-0.”

Game 2: No suspense in this one

In game 2 the Pride got the bats going early to defeat the Vipers 5-1. The Pride got eight hits in the first four innings and scored four runs. Pride pitcher Jason Goe went five innings and held the Vipers to just one hit. Bahamian native Arien Seymour relieved Goe for the sixth inning and retired all three batters in order.

In the bottom of the sixth the Pride drove in one run off of two more hits. Seymour returned to the mound and after a fly out to left center, walked a batter and gave up a double to left field. Seymour struck out the final two batters, saving the game for the Pride.

“In both games I think we played really good defense, had timely hitting, and great pitching,” said Hudak.

On Deck

The Pride travels north of the border to Charlotte Latin School for a 5 p.m. doubleheader against the Vipers on Saturday.

Box score Game 1

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Connor Pate, Piedmont Pride take doubleheader from Carolina Vipers."