Gate City sees newfound momentum squashed with lopsided loss on the road

Gate City came back down to earth Friday night.

The Grays once again failed to get to .500 following an 11-2 road loss to the Smithfield Blue Sox. It also ended a run that saw them win five out of their last six games.

They now drop to 7-9 overall and 1-5 on the road this season.

“Whenever you lose, it can be disappointing or frustrating and then when you lose 11-2, I think it’s even more so,” Gate City coach Rhys Pope said. “I definitely think things kind of get thrown under the microscope a little bit more than they needed to. I know I beat myself up not having the guys ready to go. But it’s baseball. It’s one game. We still have two and a half weeks left in the regular season. So we just gotta bounce back.”

But Gate City appeared like it was going to keep its newfound momentum going.

JD Gunderson plated the game’s first run by ripping a line drive RBI single to right field for an early 1-0 advantage in the top of the first inning. However, that ended up being the Grays’ only lead of the game.

They turned back around and gave up three runs in the later half of that inning. All of them were with two outs, as well. Trem Tolman was one strike away from getting out a two-runner jam with a full count. But he left one too far out in front of the strike zone. Taydem Neal made him pay for it with a two-run triple down the right field line. Neal then scored himself on a passed ball to all of a sudden make it a 3-1 game.

“Those little free passes kill you in the game of baseball,” Pope said. “You go down 3-1 and then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Shoot, we have to get those runs back.’ So now instead of just sticking to our plan and our approach, myself included, we’re pressing now.”

Gate City still stuck around for the next three innings. It only trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth.

But the Blue Sox quickly slammed the door on the Grays in that very same inning. Brock Rindlisbacher’s 1-out RBI single down the right field line started a 5-run inning. The Grays gave up five hits, including a home run, two walks and an error in the bottom of that fifth inning alone.

Smithfield ended the game on an 8-0 run.

“Credit to Smithfield, they’ve done it all year long and they’ve done it the last few years against everybody. They’re a tough team to put away and they know how to keep adding on to put other teams away,” Pope said. “They came out and kind of took the wind out of our sails when we started to put up a couple of zeros to get a sense of momentum back. So then it was like, ‘Shoot now we’re’ back to where we were before.’’’

Rogelio Gonzalez was the only Gate City player to register more than one hit with two. Slayder Watterson drove in the Grays’ only other run of the game in the top of the second inning. But he hit into a double play to do so.