Gnats Game Notes: Sunday, May 9th @ Lakewood - 1:05 pm

Savannah Sand Gnats (19-11, 1st, Southern) vs. Lakewood BlueClaws (16-14, 3rd, Northern)

Game #31 - Road Game #15 - Sunday – 1:05

LHP Darin Gorski (1-1, 2.70) vs. RHP Jarred Cosart (3-1, 2.70)

FirstEnergy Park – Lakewood, NJ



Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com





Today: The first-place Gnats play game three of a four-game series with the Lakewood BlueClaws, the single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. It is the seventh game of the Gnats’ eight-game road trip on which Savannah is now 3-3. The Gnats lead the Augusta GreenJackets and the Greenville Drive by two games for first place in the SAL Southern Division.



Last Night: The Sand Gnats raced out to an 8-0 lead over Lakewood after the first two innings and cruised to an 11-7 victory. SS Wilmer Flores was 3-4 with a double, triple and a home run, falling just a single shy of a cycle. Jimmy Fuller improved to 4-1 by working through jams in the first and second innings to finish five innings with seven strikeouts. The Sand Gnats tied a season-high with six doubles



Now Pitching: Darin Gorski will make his third start for the Gnats today. Gorski and Taylor Whitenton have been sharing the same spot in the rotation, “piggy-backing” and alternating starting with relieving. Gorski gave up one run on five hits in 4.1 innings in his last appearance in relief of Whitenton in a 2-1 Savannah loss to Delmarva that went 13 innings on May 3. Last year for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Gorski was 3-4 with a 4.91 in 62.1 innings over 13 appearances, 11 of which were starts. He struck out 50 batters and walked 26. The Mets selected Gorski in the 7th round of the 2009 draft out of Kutztown (PA) University where he earned the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Pitcher of the year award in 2009, his junior year. In 2009, Gorski led the Kutztown Golden Bears in strikeouts (100), innings pitched (78.2) and batting average against (.208). He was 10th in Division II in strikeouts.

The Gnats are 1-1 when Gorski starts, and 2-3 when Gorski or Whitenton starts.



Whiff – le Ball: Saturday, for the second consecutive night, Gnats’ pitching set a new season high for strikeouts in a game, this time with 15. The Gnats have struck out 28 BlueClaws in the first two games of this series.



Pitching and Defense: The Gnats lead the SAL with a 2.55 ERA, over a third of a run better than Rome’s 2.97 ERA. The Gnats have allowed the fewest runs (98) overall at 3.3 runs per game, 21 fewer than Charleston. The Gnats have yielded 20 unearned runs, the fewest in the League. Savannah has allowed the fewest hits (227) and has the best WHIP (1.13) in the SAL. The pitching staff has given up the fourth-fewest walks (85), the second-fewest home runs (12), while racking up the fourth-most strikeouts in the SAL (270).



Flo Good: After his 3-5 day yesterday, Wilmer Flores is hitting .328/.375/.588 (AVG/OBP/SLG) through 30 games. He is fifth in the SAL in batting average, third in slugging, tied for fourth in doubles (12), and tied for eighth with five home runs. Last year for Savannah he hit .264/.305/.332 with 20 doubles and three home runs in 125 games so he has already surpassed last year’s home run output in under one fourth the playing time.



Zap! After going 4-6 yesterday, Pedro Zapata has a seven game hitting streak going over which time he is 11-34 (.324) with two doubles, a triple, two runs scored and four RBI.



First Things First: The Gnats have had at least a share of first place since beating Augusta on April 21. The two game lead, which Savannah has held for five days, is tied for the Gnats’ largest.



Magic Four Ball: Savannah is 17-2 when scoring four or more runs and 2-9 when scoring three runs or fewer. When Gnats pitching allows fewer than four runs, the team is 14-5.