Savannah 3, Augusta 0

The Savannah Sand Gnats (1-0) shut out the defending South Atlantic League Champion Augusta GreenJackets, 3-0, in front of a capacity crowd at Historic Grayson Stadium Thursday evening. It’s the second season-opening shutout win in a row for the Gnats, who won in Columbus last year by a score of 2-0.

The 4,780 fans in attendance was the largest crowd to witness a Sand Gnats game since May 10, 2001 when John Smoltz made his rehab start in front of 5,742. Tonight’s attendance surpasses last year’s Opening Night attendance of 4,265.

Savannah hung a number on the scoreboard early when Jordany Valdespin scored on a Wilmer Flores sacrifice fly in the first to make it 1-0. If Savannah had only scored one run, it would have been enough for the superb pitching of Elvin Ramirez (1-0) and Manny Olivares.

Ramirez worked six scoreless innings to pick up the win. He allowed just three hits over the six frames to go along with four strikeouts. Olivares, who notched the save, picked up right where Ramirez left off by throwing three scoreless frames of his own. At one point in the contest, Ramirez and Olivares combined to retire 12 GreenJackets in a row. Augusta was held to just one hit past the third inning.

Offensively, Sean Ratliff was 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead the Sand Gnats. The Stanford-product clubbed two singles and a double. Four other Gnats each had one hit.

Kyle Nicholson (0-1) suffered the loss for Augusta after allowing three runs in four innings of work.