Carrollton, GA - The West Georgia Wolves won their 32nd game of the 2015 season on Saturday evening, taking down perennial Gulf South Conference power West Florida in the first round of the GSC tournament. The third-seeded Wolves won convincingly with a 7-4 victory over the fourth-seeded Argonauts.
What It Means: The Wolves win in the first round of the Gulf South Conference tournament and advance to the winner's bracket, taking on the Alabama Huntsville Chargers in the final game of Day 2 at the tourney. West Georgia and the Chargers will face-off at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on Sunday night.
How it Happened: The first three innings saw one of the top pitchers of the last four seasons in West Georgia's
Jamie Sexton go up against the 2015 GSC Pitcher of the Year, Brandon Nagem. The pitcher's duel lived up to its billing in that span, as neither team was able to push anything across until the top of the fourth, when West Florida punched through with the first run of the game.
But the Wolves, as would become a running theme throughout the day, would not let the lead stand. With two outs and runners on second and third in the bottom of hte fourth, junior center fielder
Drew Eady singled, bringing home
Payton Mann and
Sumner McWhorter to give the Wolves a 2-1 advantage.
After West Florida added another run in the top of the fifth, but West Georgia came right back, as
Artemis Kadkhodaian led off the inning with a double, followed by a groudout from
Dalton Rogers to move Kadkhodaian to third. The Wolves then had back-to-back RBI hits, as
Garrett Hayes singled home Kadkhodaian and
Payton Mann doubled home Hayes for a solid 4-2 lead for UWG.
The runs continued to pile up for the Wolves in the 6th, as
Taylor Bentley led off with a single followed by a another single from Eady to give the Wolves runners at first and second with no outs. Later in the inning, with two outs, Rogers delivered a double that scored both Bentley and Eady, giving West Georgia a 6-2 lead. The Wolves added another run in the 7th after a UWF run in the same frame, making the score 7-3.
Fite used three pitchers out of the bullpen, with
Josh Morgan working an inning,
Chris Burdette in for 1.2 innings and closer
Tyler Gunnin coming on to finish off the final out of the game for his 11th save of the year. That trio allowed a run on two hits in three innings of work, preserving the ninth victory of the season for Sexton.
The Wolves pounded out 12 hits on the day, with Kadkhodaian, Rogers, McWhorter and Eady each coming in with two hits on the evening. Seven different Wolves scored on the night, while Rogers and Eady were the only players with more than one RBI against the Argos.
The Records: West Georgia continues to move closer to a solid shot at the NCAA Regional, moving to 32-13 on the year with the victory. West Florida falls to 30-17 on the season.
