Gnate Celebrates His 5th Birthday (Gnats Lose)

Savannah’s beloved mascot, Gnate the Gnat, turned 5 today.  Several mascots made the trip to Grayson Stadium to help celebrate the big day.  The Sand Gnats lost for the second straight time to Charleston, 9-2.

CLICK ON THE VIDEO LINK TO SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS AND “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” SONG FOR GNATE.

A six-run sixth inning vaulted the Charleston RiverDogs to their second straight victory over the Savannah Sand Gnats winning, 9-2, at Historic Grayson Stadium Sunday afternoon.

With Savannah trailing, 3-2, Charleston sent 10 men to the plate in the sixth frame with Ray Kruml starting the rally with a two-run triple. Corban Joseph knocked him in with an RBI-single and came around to score on a Melky Mesa RBI-triple. Taylor Grote singled Mesa home and Garrison Lassiter drove the final run in putting the game out of reach.

The Gnats started out in the lead, scoring runs in the first and second on a sacrifice fly by Wilmer Flores in the first and an errant pickoff throw to first base forcing home Jefry Marte in the second.

Joseph put the ‘Dogs on the board in the third with a solo home run for his second blast in as many ballgames and his only two homers on the year. Kruml knocked in the first pair of his four runs driven in the fourth inning knocking out Savannah starter Elvin Ramirez (3-7).

The right-hander from the Dominican Republic gave up three runs on eight hits to lose his third straight start. Phillips Orta allowed four of the six runs in the sixth inning while and Manny Olivares allowed the other two. Jake Goldberg threw two scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth.

Charleston starter David Phelps (8-2) picked up his second win of the season against the Sand Gnats scattering seven hits and striking out three.

After Savannah won the first two games of the series Charleston has forced a rubber game in this five game series Monday night. Jeurys Familia (5-4, 3.08) will take the mound for the Gnats against Manny Banuelos (5-2, 2.51) for the RiverDogs. For tickets and more information, log on to sandgnats.com or call 912.351.9150.