After an hour-long rain delay, we finally got back to baseball at 8:05.
In the top of the 1st inning, Blowfish fans found out instantly that Cade Bouknight had his best stuff today. Two quick putouts followed by his first K ended the top of the first quickly.
The Blowfish bats were quiet through the first few, but Bouknight kept them in it. He picked up two more strikeouts, notching his third in just six batters faced.
In the top of the 3rd, Bouknight struck out two more batters, increasing his tally to five and pitching his third hitless frame in a row. In the bottom half of the inning, the Blowfish had their best chance yet to bring across some runs. Nick DiCarlo and Zach Cowart both singled to get the first few baserunners for the home team. New Fish on the block, Beau Hollins, reached on a walk. But the Blowfish left the bases stranded.
In the top of the 4th, Bouknight spun another masterful inning. One runner reached on an error, but Bouknight shut down the threat with a sweeping slider for a strikeout and Zander Buchan threw out the runner with an excellent throw down to first to end the inning.
The Blowfish offense lulled in the 4th, and a new pitcher came out in relief of Bouknight in the top of the 5th. Blythe Keisler toed the rubber the rest of the way for the Blowfish. He struck out the first batter, but the Bigfoots tallied their first hit right after. A big double to the left-center gap put a runner on second with just one out. Keisler responded beautifully, striking out the last two batters to get out of the jam.
The Blowfish offense finally added some run support. A towering leadoff triple to right field from Cowart set up Hollins perfectly. Hollins worked a tough at-bat and capped it off with a single right up the middle, his first hit and RBI in a Blowfish uniform.
Blowfish led it 1-0 moving to the top of the 6th inning. Keisler picked up where he left off, racking up two more strikeouts. Soft contact from the last batter made the 6th fly by.
A scoreless bottom of the 6th and top of the 7th meant that the Blowfish were still in the driver’s seat, but with just a 1-0 lead.
They came out with different intentions in the bottom half of the 7th. Andrew Ortiz led off the inning with a double that just touched down in fair territory on the third base line. Cowart followed that up with his second hit, an RBI single to make the lead grow to 2-0. Hollins ripped a single and the Blowfish now had two runners on. They advanced from a wild pitch into scoring position, and each moved up 90 feet after a crucial error from the Bigfoots third baseman. The exact same thing happened right after, with an error from the shortstop this time. After these eerie sequences, the Blowfish went up 4-0. The Bigfoots picked up two outs along the way, but they weren’t out of the woods just yet. Parker Mergo drew a walk, and DiCarlo singled to bring home one run. Ortiz followed that up with a two-run single. Cowart doubled over the first baseman, bringing DiCarlo home and Ortiz to third. This set the table perfectly for the South Carolina Gamecock, Hollins. Hollins found his pitch and launched it deep to right field, ending the game 11-0 in seven innings.
The Blowfish turned a pitcher’s duel into an offensive explosion in just one half-inning and they moved to 4-2 on the season!