Griffith's walk-off single delivers Paladins' fifth straight win

With two out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Sims Griffith singled and Carter Grote raced home from second with the winning run as Furman defeated ETSU 9-8 Friday at Latham Stadium.
It's the fifth consecutive win for the Paladins (16-20, 5-8 Southern Conference).
During the previous four games of the win streak, Furman made just one error. It appeared the Paladins were set for another error-less game Friday before a mishap opened the door for ETSU to tie the game in the ninth.
With Furman clinging to an 8-7 lead, Heath Hawkins struck out the first two batters in the ninth. However, the second required a throw to first which sailed down the right-field line allowing Hagen Owenby to reach. The Buccaneers followed with back-to-back singles to tie the game.
Billy Greenfield (1-1) came on in relief and retired the next five batters, including a pair of strikeouts in the 10th, to set the stage for the Paladins' walk-off win.
Carter Grote led off the 10th with his fourth hit of the game and was sacrificed to second by Jason Costa. After Sky Overton was intentionally walked, Cam Whitehead struck out and Sims Griffith fell behind 0-2 before roping a single to left to end the game.
Griffith's clutch hit was a welcome sight after Furman stranded 13 baserunners in the game, including leaving the bases loaded in the second and seventh innings.
ETSU (19-16, 2-8) led 5-1 going into the bottom of the fifth before Whitehead blasted a home run to left to cut the lead in half.
The Paladins' rally carried over to the sixth. After Bret Huebner's one-out walk, Jake Crawford and Jabari Richards followed with back-to-back triples to tie the game. Grote gave Furman three extra-base hits in a row and a 6-5 lead with an RBI-double to left. One out later, Overton capped the four-run inning with an RBI-single.
Both teams scored single runs in the seventh before the Bucs had single runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
In addition to the four-hit games for Grote and Overton, Crawford had three hits in Furman's 16-hit effort.
Owenby, Chris Cook and Christian Bailey each had three hits and two RBIs for ETSU.
The teams wrap up the series Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
*Video courtesy of Dan Scott.