MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The University of North Georgia baseball team exacted revenge against its Peach Belt foe in a non-conference showdown Saturday afternoon. After losing the first game of the series to Georgia College & State University 6-3 Friday, the Nighthawks utilized a three-run sixth inning to topple the Bobcats Saturday.
With the game knotted at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, freshman outfielder GCSU Hank Noonan led things off with a single. Consecutive contact outs advanced Noonan to third for sophomore outfielder Evan Cowan. Cowan singled back up the box, bringing Noonan home and giving GCSU a 2-1 lead, its first of the contest.
In the next half inning, freshman catcher Kyle Robitzsch safely reached first base after an error from GCSU junior shortstop Mason Poole.
The error would prove costly as back-to-back UNG singles, capped off by a knock from redshirt sophomore first baseman Phillip Ard, brought Robitzsch home to tie the game at 2-2.
Defensive mistakes cost the Bobcats again just a few batters later in the inning. On a ground ball to third base from junior outfielder Jorge Arispuro, GCSU junior third baseman Matthew Mebane sailed the throw to second base. The error sophomore right fielder Edwin Bowman IV had already scored from the third on the play, but the wild throw Mebane also allowed Ard to come home, making it 4-2.
Ard's run would prove to be the winner as the Bobcats added one final run in the bottom of the sixth.
Mebane blasted a solo home run, his fifth of the year, to make it 4-3. He had another chance to be the hero for GCSU in the bottom of the ninth. Down to their last out, the Bobcats had runners on the corners with Mebane at the dish. He faced off against senior right hander Jacob Lassiat for the Nighthawks. In a 2-2 count, Lassiat got Mebane to swing and miss to end the game. Lassiat allowed just one hit while striking out two batters in 1.1 innings as he earned his first save of the season.
UNG (9-2) and GCSU (6-8) will conclude its three-game non-conference series tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 25 with the rubber game set as a 1 p.m. showdown in Milledgeville, Ga.
