Savannah native John Michael Gant took a perfect game into the seventh inning and the Sand Gnats punched across the only run of the day on Champ Stuart’s eighth-inning, two-out single as the Gnats defeated the Hickory Crawdads 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at Grayson Stadium.
Gant was flawless through 6 2/3 innings — retiring the first 20 batters — before surrendering consecutive walks to Nomar Mazara and Kellin Deglan. Jairo Beras followed with an infield single to load the bases before Zach Cone flied out to end the inning.
Gant pitched seven innings, allowing one hit, no runs, walking two and striking out eight. The right-hander lowered his earned run average to 2.55. In his last three outings, Gant has allowed just one runs in 19 innings while striking out 22. He pitched no-hitter ball through 5 1/3 innings against Lexington on July 19.
Gant’s fine outing Sunday only kept the Gnats even until the bottom of the eighth inning. Colton Plaia led off with a single and Victor Cruzado entered to pinch-run. Cruzado was sacrificed to second and advanced to third on a groundout before scoring on Stuart’s infield single to short.
Savannah’s second reliever of the day, Bret Mitchell, pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings before leaving with a runner on second and one-out in the ninth. Akeel Morris, who picked up the save in Saturday night’s first game of a doubleheader, walked Mazara but fanned Deglan and Beras to notch his 12th save.
Savannah pitchers finished with 13 strikeouts. Mitchell got the win to improve to 2-0.
Hickory starter Collin Wiles matched Gant with scoreless innings through five innings. Crawdads’ reliever Patrick Kaminska (2-1) gave up a run in three innings and took the loss.
The Sand Gnats will be back in action tonight at 7:05 in Grayson Stadium to begin a three-game series with the Charleston RiverDogs.
Hickory ab r h bi Savannah ab r h bi
Van Hoosier 2b 4 0 1 0 Ruiz ss 4 0 0 0
Cordell 1b 3 0 0 0 Stuart cf 4 0 1 1
Mazara rf 2 0 0 0 Oberste 1b 4 0 0 0
Deglan c 3 0 0 0 Zapata 3b 2 0 0 0
Beras lf 4 0 1 0 Leroux dh 3 0 2 0
Cone cf 3 0 0 0 Johnson dh 0 0 0 0
Jackson dh 3 0 0 0 Rivero 2b 3 0 0 0
Demeritte 3b 3 0 0 0 Biondi rf 3 0 0 0
Marte ss 3 0 0 0 Plaia c 3 0 2 0
Cruzado pr 0 1 0 0
Glenn c 0 0 0 0
Sabol lf 2 0 0 0
Totals 28 0 2 0 Totals 28 1 5 1
Hickory 000 000 000 — 0
Savannah 000 000 01x — 1
E—Wiles, Cordell. DP—Hickory 1. LOB—Hickory 5, Savannah 5. 3B—Leroux. SAC—Codell, Sabol.
HICKORY IP H R ER BB SO
Wiles 5 2 0 0 1 4
Kaminska L,2-1 3 3 1 1 0 2
SAVANNAH IP H R ER BB SO
Gant 7 1 0 0 2 8
Mitchell W,2-0 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 3
Morris S,12 2/3 0 0 0 1 2
T—2:16. A—902.