Saturday offered a showdown between ranked teams in this weekend’s biggest upset of the day. HBCU Baseball No. 4 ranked Talladega defeated NAIA No. 2 Georgia Gwinnett 4-3. The Tornadoes got a quality start from Jose Franco (W, 5-1). Franco, in 6.1 innings pitched allowed 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, striking out 8 batters. In relief, Ramses Ortega (S, 1) received the save with 4 strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work.
Georgia Gwinnett got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning with a home run to left field for a 1-0 lead.
Talladega tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third on a double off of the bat of Jose Santiago and Eddie Velazquez singled Santiago Home.
The game turned into a pitching duel until Talladega scored three runs in the top of the seventh. The big run producing inning for Talladega, with bases loaded was Armando Jackson’s single up the middle to made it 2-1. Talladega loaded the bases for the second time in the inning, Santiago singled added another run to make it, 3-1. Talladega plated another run to go up 4-1.
Georgia Gwinnett scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning making it 4-2.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Georgia Gwinnett hit back-to-back doubles to make it a 4-3 ball game. But Ortega was able to get the final out for Talladega’s upset win over a ranked No. 2 team.
They face Georgia Gwinnett again Sunday going for the sweep.