DAHLONEGA - After forcing a decisive game three, the No. 25 University of North Georgia baseball team used a pair of long balls, including a
Crews Taylor walkoff blast, to advance to the Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship Series, presented by Under Armour, Saturday night with a sweep of Young Harris.
GAME ONE - #25 UNG 6, YHC 3
Pierce Williams was perfect through 5.2 innings of work, allowing North Georgia to jump out to an early lead. In the third, Taylor poked a RBI single to right field before
Andres Perez had a sacrifice fly that pushed UNG out to a 2-0 lead. The Nighthawks extended the lead in the fourth on a RBI double from
Will Hardigree and again in the fifth on a two-run homer from Perez, making the score 5-0.
The Mountain Lions answered in the eighth, plating three runs off a Brett Hawkins RBI double and a Logan Worley RBI single to cut the lead to 5-3 before UNG got an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth off a Taylor homer.
Williams (4-0) went the complete game, fanning five while allowing just a pair of hits and three walks.
GAME TWO - #25 UNG 12, YHC 10
North Georgia again got on the board first on a two-run bomb from
Jake Arnold in the third and RBI singles from Arnold and
Nik Levensteins in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. YHC came back in the fifth to tie it up off a Brandon Jolliff two-run homer and RBI singles from Dahlton Cash and Jackson Jones.
UNG retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a
Brady Eeles sacrifice fly, but the Mountain Lions stormed out in front, plating six runs over the sixth and seventh innings to take a 10-5 lead. North Georgia started to claw back into it after the stretch as Levensteins pushed a RBI single out to right field to trim the lead to 10-6.
In the eighth,
Tim Conway hit a one-out solo homer to straight away center to cut into the lead a little further. After a strikeout got the inning to two outs,
Bill LeRoy and Eeles reached base ahead of Levensteins who tied the game with a single swing to right center at 10-10.
UNG got Arnold on to leadoff the ninth ahead of Taylor, who pushed UNG to the championship series with a two-run blast to right center.
Beau Jones (3-1) earned the win in relief, allowing just one walk over 2.2 innings, punching out four Mountain Lions.
NOTES
- The Nighthawks will look to win their first PBC Tournament title since 2008 and are now in the championship for the first time since 2009.
- UNG hit six homers on the day, pushing their season total to 86, breaking the single season record at UNG which stood at 80 from the 2017 campaign.
NEXT UP
North Georgia will wait on the other semifinal series between Columbus State and UNC Pembroke to wrap up tomorrow before seeing their opponent in another best-of-three series next weekend. Columbus State won the opener, 7-3, Saturday afternoon. If Columbus State wins once Sunday, UNG would host the Cougars in the championship, while if the Braves sweep Sunday's twinbill, the Nighthawks would travel to UNCP next weekend.
