MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The University of North Georgia baseball team ended its season in the 2024 Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon. Held at Georgia College in Milledgeville, Ga., the quarter finals were not kind to the Nighthawks as they dropped Saturday's elimination game against seventh-seeded Augusta, 7-1.
UNG ends its season with a 32-19 overall record and a 17-10 mark in conference play. It marks the 10th straight year the Nighthawks have finished above .500 for the season.
The Jaguars got on the board quickly against UNG junior starter Daniel Courtney. After a fly out to right field in the game's first at bat, Augusta posted back-to-back-to-back solo home runs to quickly take a 3-0 lead.
Right fielder Brady Loughren, third baseman Parker Ingram and designated hitter Kyle LaRoche were the damaging trio in the opening inning.
The Jaguars grew that lead in the fifth with an RBI single from LaRoche to make it 4-0.
They scored a pair of runs again in the sixth thanks to Loughren this time, who placed a single through the left side on the infield to score two runs.
After six innings, the Nighthawks had mustered just three hits in the game as the offense struggled to get past Jaguar starter Gavin Wright.
Wright, despite walking seven batters, went 5.2 innings in the game, allowing just three hits and no runs. He struck out six UNG hitters in the process.
Augusta added its final run of the game in the seventh on yet another homer. This long ball came from first baseman Zach Kwiatkowski, a solo shot to extend it to 7-0.
The Nighthawks would have one silver lining in the loss. Star sophomore center fielder Andrews Opata ended his second year in a Nighthawk uniform with a bang. In the bottom of the ninth he clobbered a solo home run to straight away center field, marking his fifth long ball of the season.
Augusta will advance to play third-seeded Columbus State later tonight at 7 p.m. in an elimination game for the Jaguars.
For UNG, a long season battered with injuries and other challenges comes to a close. It was a year in which the Nighthawks perhaps never reached their full potential. But with rising upperclassmen such as Opata, redshirt sophomore Phillip Ard, three-time PBC Freshman of the Week Noah Darden, second baseman Brady Skipper and more, there is plenty to be excited about for next year surrounding Nighthawk baseball.
