GreenJackets filet Catfish

Julian Benavidez walked up to the plate at Lake Olmstead Stadium on Tuesday night in one of baseball's most pressure-packed scenarios.

It was the bottom of the ninth, there were two outs, the bases were loaded, the score was tied - and the Augusta GreenJackets' first baseman delivered. Benavidez singled home Marcus Sanders to give Augusta a 6-5 win against the Columbus Catfish to end a 3 hour, 21 minute affair.

"In that situation, I knew he (reliever Brandon Weeden) was going to want to go first-pitch fastball to get ahead of me," Benavidez said. "And I'm a first-pitch fastball swinger, so I wanted to jump on that opportunity."

Weeden got himself into that tight situation by walking Sanders and Brian Horwitz with one out. The right-hander had a two ball, two strike count on Carlos Sosa, but threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners, and then intentionally threw ball four to set a chance at a double play.

Mike Wagner went down swinging for the second out, bringing up Benavidez, who started the year in Double-A but was sent down to Augusta to get more at bats. Benavidez ripped the first pitch he saw to left field.

"He can just straight up hit," third baseman Aaron Hornostaj said. "He just came up here to rake."

It was Benavidez's second RBI of the game and helped get Sanders off the hook for a throwing error that extended the top of the ninth inning long enough for the Catfish (22-20) to tie the game.

The Catfish jumped out to a 4-0 lead after five innings off Osiris Matos, but the GreenJackets (23-21) cut the lead to one with a three-run fifth off Chris Malone - who entered the game having only given up one run in 13 innings to Augusta.

GreenJackets reliever Craig Whitaker stopped a Columbus scoring threat in the sixth inning when he came in for Arnoldo Mercado and got Chris Westervelt to ground into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded.

"Whenever I can come in and get somebody out, I don't have a problem with it," said Whitaker, a converted starter. "I kind of enjoy coming in with guys on base, it's more of a challenge."

The GreenJackets took the lead in the bottom of the sixth and Brian Stirm (7-5) returned the favor to Whitaker in the eighth inning, when he entered with the bases loaded and got Sergio Pedroza to ground out to Benavidez to end the inning.