Gordon's big inning leads E-Twins to title

Nick Gordon would rather not put off until tomorrow what can be accomplished today.

Case in point: On the penultimate day of the Appalachian League season, Gordon plated four runs in the seventh inning to rally Rookie-level Elizabethton to a West Division-clinching 13-6 win over Kingsport on Thursday. The Twins' No. 6 prospect went 3-for-5 with a triple and a run, while his four RBIs set a career high.

"I was just excited about the win. I wasn't counting how many RBIs, even though I was happy to get those runs across," said the 18-year-old shortstop. "We came out and worked hard every single day and it's a great group of guys. It feels good to see all our teammates happy."

The victory improved the E-Twins' record to 38-29, keeping them two games ahead of the Johnson City Cardinals (36-31), who were also victorious Thursday.

The fifth overall pick from this year's Draft, the son of Tom Gordon and brother of Dee Gordon, is batting .297 with 11 steals and 45 runs scored through 56 pro games. In the seventh with Elizabethton trailing, 6-3, he stepped into the box with runners on first and second and nobody out. He looked for and found a heater from Kingsport's Audry German.

"Thanks to the guys around me, I thought I'd get good pitches to hit. I knew I'd get the fastball early, but I knew if I fell down 0-1 or 0-2, I'd end up getting some offspeed stuff," Gordon said. "I saw the fastball early and jumped on it."

He rocketed the pitch into right field and raced to third base.

"It felt really good to see everybody coming across the plate," he said, "to be able to see the game changing."

The triple started a nine-run rally, and Gordon plated two more runs with two-out, bases-loaded single against Ismael Tijerina.

The Twins will play the second-place Cardinals in the best-of-3 semifinals with the final two games, if necessary, at Elizabethton.