Greenwood Bulldog baseball against Van Buren

3-6-04 By: Brian Vaughn
   After being picked apart for 14 hits in a 13-4 loss in the season opener the Diamond Dogs were just looking for their first win of the season Saturday in double-header action against Van Buren at Bulldog Field.
   They would find the win, but would also find they have some more work to do in getting ready for conference play.
   In what was a beautiful day for baseball Saturday afternoon, Greenwood (2-1) would celebrate the dedication of their new blue outfield fence donated by Farmers Bank by sending not one, but two home run balls over it.
   Casey Benincosa got the starting call to take the mound for the Bulldogs and would go all 7-innings in game one.
   With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 3rd, Daniel Stegall found the perfect pitch and took it straight out over the centerfield fence at the 365 mark for a home run that also scored Jantzen Black who had doubled earlier in the inning.
   Greenwood would not look back after that and scored two more runs in the bottom of the 6th-inning to win the game 6-3.
   Greenwood had 8 hits for the game, while Van Buren had 6 hits.
   Cory Allison 2 RBI, Daniel Stegall 3 RBI with a home run.
   In the second game the Bulldogs looked like they had found their groove behind the pitching of Cory Allison and the hot bats of the Bulldogs.
   Greenwood was the first on the board in the bottom of the 2nd with a Justin Fuchs home run over the left field fence. Justin Brewer and Jason McDonald would also score that inning on a Cory Allison double to take the lead 3-0.
   Greenwood would add another run in the bottom of the 5th and four more runs in the bottom of the 6th-inning to take an 8-0 lead in what looked like was going to be a convincing win for the Bulldogs.
   Van Buren though had other plans and took advantage of a number of Bulldog miscues to score 6 runs in the top of the 7th-inning and would see Cory Allison relieved for Daniel Stegall on the mound, then Jantzen Black would be sent in to finish up.
   Greenwood finished game two with 15 hits to Van Buren’s 8.
   Justin Fuchs went 2 for 2 with an RBI with a home run. Joseph Piroutek 3 for 4 with an RBI. Ed Woods 2 RBI.
   “Ugly wins, but we’re not going to gripe about wins,” said Bulldog head coach Craig Jones. “It’s going to take us a little while I guess to get rolling. We’re going to have to, if we start playing like that come conference time we’re going to be in trouble.”
   Greenwood opens up conference play hosting Huntsville at Bulldog Field Friday at 4 p.m. for a double-header.

Game 1
Van Buren     2 0 0  1 0 0 0 3
Greenwood   2 0  2  0 0  2  -   6

Game 2
Van Buren     0  0 0 0 0  0  6 6
Greenwood 0  3  0  0  1  4  -   8