THOMASVILLE, N.C. | The No. 17 University of North Georgia baseball team's bats went quiet as the Nighthawks suffered a 5-1 setback to 2
nd-seeded Mount Olive on Friday night at the 2015 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional held at Finch Field. The 3
rd-seeded Nighthawks (36-16) will now face 5
th-seeded Wingate in a 3:00 p.m. elimination game on Saturday.
Mount Olive will take on top-seeded host Catawba tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.
The Trojans went on top in the third with a pair of runs. One-out singles by Kilgore Gailmard and Morozowski set the stage and Joe Koehler drove them home with a double to left center.
Rob Shipman led off the fourth with a single, went to third on a double by Chris Leduc and came home on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Farmer to up the Mount Olive lead to 3-0.
Morozowski led off the fifth with a home run to right and the Trojans added another run on a two-out single by Leduc for a 5-0 edge.
North Georgia had chances as the Nighthawks stranded 10 runners on the evening, but did not break through until the seventh. The Nighthawks put a pair of runners on in the third and had them at second and third following a sacrifice. Justice recorded a pair of fly outs to end the inning.
Justice settled down and threw a pair of 1-2-3 frames before the Nighthawks threatened again in the sixth.
Joey Cecere led off with a double and
Connor Hoover was hit by a pitch. Justice would get three fly outs to again skirt the trouble.
In the seventh, North Georgia had back-to-back singles from
Travis Naraine and
Tremayne Toorie. After a force out at second,
Devin Gearhart hit a sacrifice fly to get the Nighthawks on the board. Justice got out of the inning with a ground out then exited in the eighth after a one-out walk to
Sam Tidaback.
Kodi Whitley would walk
Trevor Sams as North Georgia again had two runners on. Whitley got a fly out and a strikeout to end the frame. Whitley allowed a two-out single to Cecere in the ninth, but struck out the final batter to notch his first save.
Brandon Agar (4-5) took the loss for the Nighthawks. He went four innings and allowed the five runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.
Taylor Keinat tossed four shutout innings of relief. He surrendered four hits with a pair of strikeouts.
Cecere recorded two of the Nighthawks' hits on the night to lead the UNG offense.