GreenJackets win Game 1 of best-of-three playoff series

Adam Duvall’s homerless streak ended at the perfect time.

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Augusta's Carlos Willoughby can't make the grab on a shallow outfield against Savannah at Lake Olmstead Stadium.

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Augusta's Adam Duvall looks to steal against Savannah.

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The Augusta GreenJackets’ regular season home run leader hadn’t gone deep in his last 50 at bats, but he connected for a three-run blast in the seventh inning to make the difference in a 4-1 win over the Savannah Sand Gnats in Game 1 of the South Atlantic League Southern Divisional playoffs.

“I haven’t had the home run swing,” Duvall said. “I may have been trying too hard to hit it out at times, but in that situation I was just trying to drive the ball.”

Duvall blasted a 2-2 changeup over the center field wall for a two-out, game-deciding rally that gave the GreenJackets a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, which will move to Savannah for Game 2 on Friday.

A series expected to be defined by quality pitching didn’t disappoint on either end. Mike Kickham gave Augusta six and one-third solid innings, allowing just one run on three hits and a walk.

Savannah got a strong starting effort from Angel Cuan, who threw six shutout innings, scattered six hits and struck out five in a no decision.

But the Augusta bullpen went one inning better than Savannah’s.

““We knew it was going to be a good pitching match up all series,” Augusta manager Lipso Nava said. “Our bullpen has taken a beating the last three series, but we’ve been refreshed and it showed.”

The Sand Gnats gave up all four of the GreenJackets’ runs in the seventh. Bobby Haney and Chris Lofton drew back-to-back two-out walks off reliever Chase Huchingson (0-1). Joel Weeks drove in Haney with a single up the middle to tie the game, and Duvall followed with the game-deciding home run.

“That’s what it was. It was one inning,” Sand Gnats manager Ryan Ellis said. “We got two quick outs and it kind of unraveled there pretty quick with the walks. Give those guys credit. They battled and they made something happen.”

Augusta reliever Jose Valdez (1-0) took over for Kickham and stranded two runners in the seventh to get the win, but he got into trouble when the first two Savannah batters reached base in the eighth.

Phil McCormick, added to the Augusta roster a day earlier, celebrated his 23rd birthday by stranding the runners with a strikeout and a line-drive double play to kill the threat.

“I figured they sent me to Augusta for a reason,” said McCormick, who arrived too late to make the regular season roster and wasn’t sure if he would actually see any playing time until the GreenJackets clinched a playoff spot on the final day.

“I was prepared for this type of situation. That was my role in college, and I know how to come in and settle things down.”

Brett Bochy finished the job by retiring three of the four batters he faced in the ninth.

Savannah, the league’s first-half Southern Division champions, took a 1-0 lead after Joe Bonfe led off the fifth with a triple on a line drive that got past left fielder Raynor Campbell. Aderlin Rodriguez got the RBI ground out two batters later.

Ellis confirmed that his Game 2 starter may end up being New York Mets two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, who is currently with Advanced-A St. Lucie in the Florida State League playoffs.

“I don’t know what the scenarios are, but there is a possibility,” Ellis said. “That’s not up to me. That’s up to the front office and depending on how his rehab is to date. Barring any set backs, there is a possibility, but I’m not the one making the decisions.”

Shawn Sanford, voted the South Atlantic League’s Most Outstanding Pitcher, will start Game 2 for Augusta.