Suwannee’s Summer Dog baseball team had a chance to try their skills against a team from the Wakulla area made up of mostly college players July 5. They called themselves the SWAT. It didn’t matter to Suwannee. The Summer Dogs swatted them soundly 8-5.



Rheed Baldwin was the hero for the Dogs. Baldwin hit three home runs, knocking in a total five of Suwannee’s eight runs all by himself. Baldwin also pitched six and one third innings, giving up three of SWAT’s five runs.



Baldwin started on the mound. It was hot and the fans fanned themselves as they waited for the game to start. The defense was Suwannee’s strength against the team from the Quincy area. Swat knew how to hit and sent the ball into the outfield numerous times.



Matt Yanossy got tried first in left field. Yanossy made a circus catch, diving and sliding and coming up with the Dogs’ first out. then the Dogs put the whammy on the SWAT with a double play. Keene snagged the hit at first, threw to Stovall on second who got it back to Keene in time to out the runner.



In Suwannee’s first at-bat, Ross Aretino led off with a hit over second off the first pitch. Baldwin singled sending Aretino to third after SWAT made the first of many errors. Stovall hit a sac fly, but the outfielder dropped it (error #2) and Aretino scored. The inning ended with the Dogs up by a narrow 1-0.



SWAT lived up to their name in the second. A SWAT hitter hit a home run off the first pitch of the inning. Then the third batter hit another homer. Aretino had a very busy day in center field. He made the first of what would be a regular slew of balls dropping into center. Baldwin struck out the last batter.



The Dogs came up to bat in the second down 1-2. Taylor Abercrombie bounced one by the third baseman and Baldwin hit his first homerun of the night driving in Abercrombie. The Dogs ended the second up 3-2.



Aretino went to work again in the third making a sliding one-handed catch for the first out. Baldwin struck out batter number two and Yanossy caught a line drive straight to him in left field for the final out of the inning.

Yanossy drove a hard ball all the way to the wall in center for a lead-off double. Zack Davis bunted, drove in Yanossy and turned his bunt into a triple after SWAT erred at first. Davis stole home after a bad pitch to make it 5-2 after three innings.



Nick Reppert, playing right field, caught a ball off the wall and got it to Stovall to tag out the runner at second. Stovall caught a bouncing ball and threw to Michael Keene at first for the third out. Keene made a great catch for the out.



In the sixth the score was still 5-2 Suwannee. Rob Carbonneau singled to the short stop but outran the throw. then Baldwin hit his second homer of the night across the center field wall in the same spot as the last one. Baldwin drove in Carbonneau to make the score 7-2. SWAT trotted out a new pitcher.



Baldwin pitched the first third of the seventh. Jamie Fike, the Summer Dog coach took Baldwin out when SWAT scored and put in Billy Moran. Baldwin pitched six and one third innings. Moran’s first pitch snagged the SWAT in a double play, the second one for the Dogs in the game. A ground ball went to Stovall who tagged second and made a quick throw to first.



Moran made it three up three down in the top of the eighth with some help from the defense. Baldwin, now in left field, made a great catch for the last out and Moran struck out batter number two.



Baldwin led off in the bottom of the eighth and smacked another homer to the same spot over the center field wall. That made it 8-3 and Suwannee was through scoring.



Moran got into trouble in the ninth. The lead off hitter for SWAT walked and the second man up doubled to drive him in. Fike put Stovall in to relieve Moran. Stovall shut SWAT down striking out two of the three batters he faced. The final score was 8-5 Suwannee. Go Dogs!



Janet Schrader may be reached by calling 1/386/362-1734 ext. 132 or by e-mail at janet.schrader@gaflnews.com.