Sondag (left), Povse (middle), and Long (right) all pitched great games tonight

Big win for Green Hope and a tough loss for Fuquay Varina tonight as the game could have gone either way. Green Hope pitchers Daniel Sondag and Max Povse both pitched almost identical great games. Sondag pitched the first 4 innings while Povse the last 4 innings, each gave up only 1 run and only 1 hit, 6 strikeouts each, 1 hit batter each, and 1 walk for Sondag while Povse had 2.

First inning, Sondag picks off his 5th runner of the season, as Grudee eventually tags out FV's Phillip Cotten (right)

Meanwhile FV's Travis Long was also pitching a great game, going 6 2/3 innings allowing 2 runs (1 with 2 outs in the 7th inning), 7 strikeouts, 4 walks, 1 hit batter, and allowed 9 hits. Long did a great job of pitching out of jams, almost in every inning, and had the game ending grounder literally in his glove, only to have it take a bad hop off the mound and just get away from him. Green Hope had base runners on in every inning, actually 2 runners on in every inning but the third when they had just a leadoff single by Will Yoder, but could not break through with a big inning.

Catcher's interference (left - look at glove), followed by Boghosian's throw to Prevost to get lead runner at 3rd (right)

Sondag was breezing along until the 3rd inning, when Fuquay scored a run without a hit. The leadoff batter was hit by a pitch, then catcher's interference on the next batter put runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs. A hard grounder to first and a strong throw to third to get the lead runner for 1 out. Another infield grounder and a slightly offline throw to first was dropped, loading the bases for yet another grounder where GH tried to turn a 4-6-3 double play, but the throw to first was not in time, scoring the runner from third, Fuquay up 1-0 after 3 innings.

Prevost (left) played solid at 3rd, but this one throw was slightly off and Boghosian (right) couldn't make the play

Green Hope was getting plenty of hits, 3 singles for Smith Prevost, 2 singles and a walk by Will Yoder, 2 singles and a hit by pitch for Grant Shambley, and 2 hits by Anthony Colantino. Green Hope got unlucky on Colantino's second hit, as with 2 outs Prevost had singled, and Colantino hit one over the leftfielder's head which would have easily scored Prevost from first, but the ball bounced over the fence for a ground rule double, and both runners did not score. Fuquay up 1-0 after 4 innings.

Prevost (left) would have scored on Colantino's double (right) in the fourth inning

Green Hope tied the game in the bottom of the 6th, Jonathan Grudee bunted for a single (a real close play at first), followed by a sac bunt from Nick Addona, moving Grudee to second with 1 out. Prevost followed with a single to score Grudee and tie the score, 1-1 after 6 innings.

You make the call, Grudee beats out a leadoff bunt in the sixth inning

Prevost (left) drives in Green Hope's first run to tie the game, as Grude (right) scores from second

But Fuquay immediately took back the lead in the top of the 7th inning, a leadoff walk was followed by Colin Carver's double, scoring the runner from first, Fuquay up 2-1 in the middle of the 7th inning.

Shambley (left) takes 3rd on flyout and ties game as Pistacchio reached 1st on his 2-out grounder (right)

"Luck" hasn't been on Green Hope's side for much of the year, but in the bottom of the 7th, a little good fortune came their way. Shambley was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Yoder sacrifice bunted him to second, a fly out to rightfield allowed Shambley to tag up and reach third with 2 outs. With the game on the line, Joe Pistacchio cued a grounder back to the pitcher, but the ball took a bad hop at the mound, and just got past Long, hitting in his glove but spinning out, allowing Shambley to score from third to tie the game at 2-2 after 7 innings.

Big plays - Boghosian's scoop ends the top of the 8th, and Josam almost gets picked off in the bottom of the inning

Fuquay threatened in the top of the 8th inning, but a grounder to SS and a nice scoop at first by Boghosian, prevented any runs from scoring. In the bottom of the 8th, Prevost singled with 1 out, David Josam came in to run. Colantino was hit by a pitch, moving Josam to second, and Shambley singled to score Josam, Green Hope wins 3-2 in 8 innings.

Shambley's single (left) scores Josam (right) from second and Green Hope wins the game 3-2 in 8 innings

Sondag and Povse pitched equally well, but the win goes to Povse (2-3), Green Hope moves to 8-6 conference and 11-9 overall. With this win, Green Hope is positioned well for the playoffs, but by no means guaranteed a spot, but a win Friday against Apex at the USA Baseball complex would clinch it.

Happy group of Falcons as win or lose, they played a good game tonight, but it's always better when you win