What a game! The rivalry between Bulldog baseball and Tiger baseball erupted in a melee Tuesday, March 21, on Columbia County High School Tiger field. Both teams, all the coaches and several fans roared onto the field after the Columbia coach pushed relief pitcher Billy Moran to the ground.

“When Billy tagged the runner out with too much force, the Lake City coach came out and shoved Billy to the ground,” said Traci Baldwin.

Not only was the game “spirited,” but Rheed Baldwin hit his eighth home run of the year to break Ryan Stovall’s season record of seven homers.

This is how it all went down according eye-witness accounts. The game was 5-4 Suwannee as Columbia stepped up to the plate in the top of the fifth inning. Billy Moran had come into the game to relieve Nick Reppert, the starting pitcher. One run scored and the scoring Columbia player celebrated his success vocally in front of the Suwannee fans and dugout. The next batter grounded one to Moran, who snagged it and tagged the runner out before he got to first base. Moran used too much force in the tag out and that’s when the Columbia coach felt the need to dump Billy.

“Yes it was a very spirited game,” said Coach Ronnie Gray. But no players or coaches were ejected !” Daniel Tillman, currently 3-0, relieved Moran in the sixth. Tillman pitched three innings, going into one extra inning when the score remained tied at 5-5. Tillman picked up his third win of the season.

“Daniel Tillman showed great determination in a situation where most players collapse,” Gray said. “I think he certainly should now feel capable of pitching in any game anywhere and being successful.”

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one game, Matt Yanossy hit a game-winning home run in the eighth. Yanossy went 4-5 at the plate with a run scored and two RBIs. But it was Yanossy’s heroics in the eighth, according to Gray, that told the story of this incredible game.

Yanossy stepped to the plate in a 5-5 tie in the top of the eighth and fell behind 0-2 in the count. Yanossy, a senior, the Gainesville Sun’s Defensive Soccer Player of the Year in 2004, a kid who had to rehab twice from ACL tears, and a cool customer, whacked an 0-2 breaking pitch from left-hander Danny Guanung over the rightfield fence. The homer won the lucky, number-13 game of the year for the Dogs 6-5. “Offensively, we came out of the gate outstanding,” Gray said. “We hit around in the first inning, sending 11 hitters to the plate in the first inning and getting nine hits and scoring five runs. After that it got tough.”

Nick Reppert started and threw very well, according to Gray. Gray said Reppert was plagued by some poor defensive play early in the game.

“It’s obvious if we had made the plays behind Nick, he would have taken a shut-out into the fifth or sixth inning,” Gray stated. “I did not feel Columbia was capable of scoring runs in an earned-run situation.”

Moran came in to relieve Reppert in the fifth with two on base and no outs. Moran pitched Suwannee out of a jam that could have put the Dogs behind. After the melee, Tillman relieved Moran and held Columbia scoreless through the remainder of the game.

Offensively, again, every hitter in the Suwannee line-up collected at least a hit, but the offensive hero for the night was Yanossy with his clutch homer in the extra inning.

“Matt has been huge all year and tonight was no exception,” Gray said. “There’s not much left to say when a guy hits a homerun on the road to win it, other than outstanding.”

Suwannee is now 13-2 and 7-0 in district 3-4A and ranked number seven in the FSWA polls that came out last week.

Look for hot Bulldog baseball tomorrow night, Thursday, March 30 against Taylor. Game time is 7 p.m.