MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – The No. 6 University of North Georgia baseball team used a strong pitching outing from Dylan Peppers and a pair of home runs by Conner Corbitt and Bill Leroy to down seventh-seeded Lincoln Memorial, 4-1, in opening round action of the 2017 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional on Thursday at Mount Olive's Scarborough Field.

Peppers kept the Railsplitters at bay all afternoon on his way to the complete game win. The right-hander struck out eight Railsplitters over his nine innings and did not allow a hit after a fifth-inning single. The only base runner he allowed in his final 4.2 innings was a walk in the eighth.
 
Trevor Sams joined Corbitt and Leroy with multiple hit games to lead the Nighthawk offense.
 
Lincoln Memorial took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a RBI-ground out.
 
North Georgia tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on Sams' two-out single to left. Corbitt homered to lead off the fourth to put the Nighthawks up for good.
 
Leroy homered to lead off the sixth inning to put the Nighthawks up 3-1.
 
Corbitt singled in another insurance run in the eighth following Sams' leadoff double.
 
NOTES

- Peppers only needed four pitches to record the final three outs to move to 8-3 on the season.

- North Georgia doubled up the Railsplitters in hits, 10-5.

- Despite being a conference foe, tomorrow's meeting with No. 17 USC Aiken will be the first of the season as the two teams did not meet in the regular season or conference tournament.

NEXT

- The second-seeded Nighthawks (43-10) advance to face USC Aiken tomorrow (Friday) at 7:00 p.m.