DAHLONEGA - In two tightly contested games, the University of North Georgia baseball team won both ends of a Saturday Peach Belt doubleheader over No. 12 USC Aiken at Bob Stein Stadium. With the win in game one, head coach
Tom Cantrell led the baseball program to its 700th win in the 20-year history of the program.
GAME 1 - UNG 5, USCA 3
North Georgia got started quickly as
Crews Taylor hit the second pitch of the bottom of the first inning out of the park in right field to take a 1-0 lead. Later in the frame, Josh Profit brought home
Chase Sudduth to double the Nighthawk lead.
After the Pacers cut the lead in half in the top of the third, UNG answered in the bottom half on a
Bill LeRoy double that plated Sudduth for a 3-1 lead. USC Aiken again scored a single run in the top of the sixth, but UNG got it right back again on a
Nik Levensteins RBI single, making the score 4-2.
Profit brought home North Georgia's final run of the game on a RBI double in the seventh before the Pacers scored their last run in the ninth inning on a solo homer.
GAME 2 - UNG 6, USCA 5
Again, UNG wasted no time putting two runs on the board in the first inning, using a
Nick Clarno double to score Sudduth and LeRoy. The Pacers again scored in the third inning, but Sudduth answered that run with two more for the Nighthawks on a bomb to left in the fifth inning to make the score 4-1.
The Pacers cut it back to a one-run game in the sixth by scratching two runs across, but Clarno stretched the lead back out to two on a sac fly to center that scored Sudduth.
USC Aiken tied the game up in the eighth inning, but North Georgia won it in the bottom of the ninth as Sudduth beat out a throw to the plate with the bases loaded to walk off the game.
NOTES
- In the doubleheader, Sudduth went 6-for-8 with six runs scored, including going 4-for-4 in the second game.
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Steven Bower (3-1) got the win in game one after throwing six innings and striking out nine.
Parker Morrison (4-1, 6 SV) earned the save in game one and the win in game two.
NEXT UP
North Georgia and USC Aiken will finish out the series tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.