March 14, 2010

Box Score

DAHLONEGA, GA – The North Georgia baseball team were on the verge of their first three-game sweep of the season, but Georgia Southwestern rallied late to come away with an 8-7 victory in the weekend finale Sunday afternoon at Bob Stein Stadium in Peach Belt Conference action.

The Saints take two out of three on the weekend, moving to 15-7 overall and 6-3 in the Peach Belt Conference’s west division, while the Hurricanes move to 10-6 overall and 4-2 in league action.

North Georgia took a 2-0 lead in third inning as Jordan Erisman drove in a run with a groundout, and Andre Airich followed with a single to left, plating another run and giving the Saints a two-run lead.

The Hurricanes refused to go away however, still trailing by a pair heading to the sixth inning, but Georgia Southwestern put a five spot on the board to take their first lead of the day. Zack Stanton led off the inning with a double down the left field line, one of five hits in the inning. Trent Dooley, Chris Carroll, and Bud Long all followed with RBI hits, giving the visitors a five-run sixth inning and a three-run edge.

After the Saints manufactured a run in the last of the sixth inning, GSW went right back to work with a run in the seventh off a double from the bat of Jared Allen to plate a run. North Georgia answered right back with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, using an infield single from Airich to plate a run, before Chad Sage brought home another run with a single to right field to pull the home team back to within a run at 6-5.

Stanton’s bat continued to stay hot for the Hurricanes in the eighth, following a Chris Lingham single with a towering home run down the left field line to give Georgia Southwestern a three-run lead once again, this time at 8-5.

The Saints gave North Georgia fans something to cheer about in the ninth as two unearned runs pulled the Saints to within a run at 8-7, but Kenny Bellavance grounded out to third to end the game, stranding Airich on third base and giving the Hurricanes a win in the series finale.

Tyler Daniel (2-2) picked up the win for the Hurricanes, lasting five innings and allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits. Chris Carroll came on in relief, tossing 4.0 innings and allowing three hits and four runs to earn his second save of the season.

Alex Simmons (0-1) suffered the loss for the Saints, one of seven North Georgia pitchers to enter the game, as the staff recorded nine strikeouts, but walked 10 Hurricane batters.

North Georgia returns to action next week, playing host to Carson-Newman in mid-week action with single games slated for Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Bob Stein Stadium.