DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia baseball team rallied late Saturday afternoon after giving up an early lead to defeat Augusta 5-4 and lock up the series win. The Nighthawks will look to make it a sweep tomorrow, Sunday, Apr. 7 with a 1 p.m. finale from Bob Stein Stadium at Lynn Cottrell Park.
With the win, UNG is now 24-11 overall and 12-5 in Peach Belt Conference play, sitting in a tie for second place with Lander.
The Jaguars got on the scoreboard first with an RBI single in the second inning from Dylan Wanat.
The Nighthawks faced trouble defensively in the third inning as starting pitcher Wes Lott had to leave the game with an injury. Head coach Tom Cantrell was forced to maneuver many pieces of his board much earlier in the game than anticipated. He chose sophomore right handed pitcher Jaret Bales to shoulder the early load out of the bullpen.
Bales got out of the inning and held Augusta to a one-run lead entering the fourth inning. It was then that UNG took its first lead of the game.
After a double from sophomore left fielder Noah Darden and subsequent walk from junior shortstop Riley Frost, a pair of fly outs advanced the runners culminating in a sacrifice fly from freshman third baseman Kyle Robitzsch to score Darden.
Then, with two outs, sophomore right fielder Edwin Bowman IV singled over the third baseman and down the left field line to give the Nighthawks the 2-1 lead.
They added a run the next inning on another sacrifice fly, this time from Frost to bring home sophomore center fielder Andrews Opata.
Augusta got a run back the next inning after a pick off move from Bales sailed into foul territory, allowing center fielder Harrison Aulds to advance to third. Aulds then came home on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.
In the home half of the inning, UNG sophomore second baseman Brady Skipper raced around the bases to manufacture another run.
After working a lead off walk, Skipper stole second base and then third a few pitches later. He now ranks second on the team with 14 stolen bags this year on a UNG team that leads the PBC in stolen bases this season.
After getting to third, Skipper sped home on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.
The seventh inning was a busy one for the Nighthawk pitching staff. Bales gave up a lead off single after pitching a solid four early relief innings in place of the injured Lott. Then Cantrell pulled redshirt junior lefty Zach Green out of the bullpen. Green got the first two outs of the inning before allowing a base knock to put two runners on.
Then, Cantrell went back to a right hander in freshman Andrew Cedano.
Cedano conceded a walk to load the bases. Cantrell went back to the bullpen again after Augusta head coach Chris Howell elected to pinch hit junior outfielder Brady Loughren. He chose redshirt freshman Nathan Alexander to face Loughren.
In a long at bat that eventually went to a 3-2 count, Loughren squeezed out a walk to make it a 4-3 game in favor of the Nighthawks.
Alexander would get out of the inning in the next at bat to maintain the slim lead.
That lead would not last long however in the eighth inning. After a flurry of defensive substitutions from Cantrell in the hopes to have his best defenders in the field to record the last six outs, the Jaguars tied the game off the bat of senior second baseman Kolby Ayala.
After Alexander got the first two hitters of the frame to pop out, Ayala connected on his second home run of the season with two outs, tying the game at 4-4.
Cantrell went to the bullpen one more time, bringing in redshirt junior left hander Pierce Williams to make his 2024 season debut. Williams got out of the inning after allowing a base hit to his first batter thanks to his catcher Bryson Stripling.
Wanat had the knock and tried to steal second base but Stripling had other plans, cutting down his second runner of the day on the base paths to end the inning.
With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth, sophomore shortstop Jace Bowen stepped up for his first at bat of the day after serving as a defensive sub in the seventh. Bowen was hit by the pitch to put the lead off runner on base.
Skipper then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Bowen into scoring position. Bowman flew out to deepest center field in the next at bat, but Bowen had to retreat to second base after planning for the ball to land and being caught near third base.
Then with two outs and the go-ahead run at second, junior right fielder Josh Sosa came through in the clutch, singling up the middle to score Bowen and give UNG the 5-4 lead.
In the ninth, Williams got a one-two-three inning that was capped off by back-to-back strikeouts to end the game as he earned the win.
