Bulldogs host and win 1st Annual Gainesville Baseball Tournament
The Gainesville Bulldogs hosted their 1st Annual Gainesville Baseball Tournament Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 and were named tournament champions after two wins and a loss.
Two games were played on Friday evening to open the round robin style tournament. Gainesville beat Thayer 14-3.
Ava and Bakersfield took the field following that game, and Ava edged out Bakersfield 6-5. Bodie Hardin led the Lions with two hits, followed by Ty Cotter, Alex Helm, Jake Summers and Austin Durham with one hit each.
On Saturday, Gainesville took on Ava in the first game of the day, and the Bulldogs beat the Ava Bears 7-3.
Ava stayed on the field and faced Thayer in the noon game. The Bears beat the Thayer Bobcats 12-3.
Bakersfield then took on Thayer and won 5-4. Bakersfield’s Bodie Hardin pitched the winning game. Ty Cotter led the Lions’ offense with three hits, Case Lashley had two hits and Jake Summers and Austin Durham had one hit each.
In the final game of the tournament, Bakersfield beat Gainesville 8-5. Bakersfield’s Austin Durham pitched a complete game, striking out seven batters. Bodie Hardin and Andy Jorgenson led the Lions; offense with two hits each.
Overall, Gainesville Bulldogs Coach Blake Hobbs was pleased with his team’s performance throughout the tournament.
Grant Leeker led the Bulldogs’ offense in the tournament, going 7-12 from the plate with a double, one homerun, two RBIs and five runs scored. Hunter Luna was 4-9 with four RBIs and two doubles. Cutter Morrison was 4-11 with three RBIs and a double.
Grant Leeker pitched five innings and had 11 strikouts. Dawon Hewett pitched six innings and had five strikeouts. Cutter Morrison pitched three innings with six strikeouts and Brayden Miller pitched two innings with six strikeouts.
“All in all, we played well,” Hobbs said. “We only gave up two earned runs the whole weekend. We need to clean things up defensively, but I like where I see my team going.”
The Bulldogs added one more things to be happy about earlier this week, Gainesville released the news that the school will be hosting baseball and softball districts at their new facility. While softball districts have been hosted in Gainesville before, this will be the first time in school history that the GHS baseball program has hosted the tournament.