9/10/11

Savannah 3, Augusta 1

The Savannah Sand Gnats beat the Augusta GreenJackets 3-1 Saturday night to claim the Southern Division Championship Series two games to one. The Gnats will advance to the best-of-five game South Atlantic League Championship Series against the Northern Division Champion Greensboro Grasshoppers.



Greensboro will host games one and two Monday and Tuesday nights. After a travel day Wednesday, the Gnats will host game three Thursday, September 15. If necessary, game four will be in Savannah, Friday, September 16 and game five will be Saturday, September 17.



Saturday, Gnats starter Erik Goeddel fired five shutout innings to earn the win. Goeddel yielded just three hits and three walks while fanning four batters. All but one of the outs he recorded was a strikeout, a ground out, or an infield popout.



Darrell Ceciliani reached base three times Saturday to lead the Gnats’ offense. Ceciliani was 6-7 with a walk in the final two games of the series against Augusta and finished the three-game series at 6-11 with a triple and two runs scored.



The Gnats built a 3-0 lead against Augusta started Taylor Rogers through four innings. Ceciliani led off the first by lacing a triple up the right-center field gap. He scored on Wilfredo Tovar’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 Savannah lead. The Gnats made it 2-0 in the second when 3B Aderlin Rodriguez doubled and scored on Alonzo Harris’ RBI groundout. Savannah added an unearned run in the fourth inning that was set up by a Rodriguez walk and a single from 1B Joe Bonfe. Bonfe eventually scored on a Ceciliani chopper on the right side that GreenJackets’ first baseman Joel Weeks could not handle.

Ryan Fraser relieved Goeddel to begin the sixth inning for the Gnats. Fraser retired all six men to face him and fanned one. With thee left-handers scheduled at the top of the Augusta batting order, the Gnats turned to left-hander Brandon Sage. He yielded a leadoff single to SS Bobby Haney who advanced to second on a passed ball and eventually scored on an RBI single by 3B Adam Duvall off Ronny Morla. Morla worked a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout and two groundouts to pick up his first save of the postseason and send the Gnats to the SAL Championship Series.

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