Carrollton, GA - After weather delayed the start of the series, the Wolves traveled to Rome to face the Shorter Hawks on Sunday in a doubleheader matchup between the two Gulf South Conference teams, and they won both games of the day starting with a 9-5 victory in game one, and a 8-1 win in the second game of the series. The two wins mark the Wolves 9th straight GSC victory in a row and their 16th win overall.
Jamie Sexton started the first game of the day for UWG and he struggled early, but settled in and gave the team a chance to win the game. The Hawks scored the first run of the contest in the bottom of the first on an RBI triple. Sexton gave up three hits in the first, but held the Hawks to just one run in the inning. In the top of the fourth,
Garrett Hayes tied the game up when he hit his first homerun of the year. The tie would not last long as Shorter would regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.
West Georgia would again tie the game in the top of the fifth inning when
Tyler Hutch had an RBI single that scored
Drew Eady. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Hawks would regain the lead again when they scored two runs to make the score 4-2. Leading off the sixth, Hayes hit his second homerun of the game to cut the deficit to one run. After Shorter added a run in the bottom of the sixth, UWG would take control of the game in the top of the seventh when the Wolves scored four runs to put the lead at 7-4. The Wolves would add two more runs in the top of the ninth to ice the game for UWG.
Sexton earned his fifth win of the season as he went six innings and allowed three earned runs on eight hits.
Ethan Hunter came on in relief for Sexton in the seventh inning and pitched just over one inning giving up no runs and two hits. In the bottom of the eighth inning,
Chris Burdette came in for Hunter and he would finish the game for the Wolves and only gave up one hit.
Garrett Hayes had his best game in a UWG uniform and was the star of the game. He hit two homeruns and scored four times for West Georgia. Also having good games were
Artemis Kadkhodaian and
Dalton Rogers who both had two RBI each and combined for three hits.
Tyler Hutch had two hits and drove in a run from the top of the lineup.
Matthew Norton started the second game of the doubleheader and had his best game of the season for the Wolves. He pitched the complete seven innings and only gave up one hit and recorded six strikeouts. UWG started out the game fast scoring four runs in the top of the second inning to give Norton early run support. After
Garrett Hayes scored the first run of the game on an error,
Tyler Hutch drove in two more runs on a single to left field to give the Wolves a 3-0 lead. The next batter,
Artemis Kadkhodaian, singled to left field scoring
Drew Eady and giving the UWG a 4-0 lead going into the third inning.
The Wolves continued the scoring in the top of the fourth inning when Hutch singled to left field giving him his third RBI of the game and UWG a 5-0 lead. In the top of the fifth, the Wolves would score their sixth run of the game when
Walker Borneman had an RBI single that scored Hayes. A few batters later, UWG would cap off the scoring for the game when Hutch drove in the final two runs on a single giving him five RBI for the game.
The team had eight hits in the second game of the doubleheader and Hutch led the Wolves with three hits and five RBI. After leading the team in game one, Hayes followed up his great performance with two hits and two runs scored in the second game.
Walker Borneman had a good game from the DH spot collecting one hit and scoring two runs for the team.
The final game of the series is tomorrow starting at 1:00pm as the Wolves will be going for the sweep of the Hawks and their tenth straight GSC win in a row. To follow the action live, be sure to follow the team on Twitter @UWGAthletics.
