CARROLLTON, Ga. – The UWG baseball team secured their first series win of the 2022-23 season after defeating the Augusta Jaguars, 13-0 on Sunday afternoon.
The Wolves' offense came on strong in the later innings, scoring a combined 12 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to cruise past the Jaguars.
"I'm extremely proud of our players in how they came out and how they competed," said head coach
Jeff Smith. "I'm excited with what I see and I'm happy with winning two out of three."
Carson Crossley got the start for the Wolves and got through the first inning with little to no issues, setting the stage for the West Georgia offense.
Anthony Calabro wasted little time in giving the Wolves a lead, launching a solo homerun to get UWG on the board in the bottom of the first.
Crossley continued to cruise through the second and third innings while the Wolves offense left a runner in scoring position in each inning. West Georgia held onto a 1-0 advantage going into the fourth inning.
Crossley's day would end after a spotless fourth inning as the junior finished with a line of 4.0 innings pitched, allowing two hits, striking out two, walking one batter and allowing no earned runs.
"Everything starts and ends on the mound," Smith added. "Carson gave us a great quality start and that's what we are looking for. We are looking for someone to take that number three starter role and run with it and he did an outstanding job of mixing his pitches and commanding the baseball."
Jake Jordan came on in relief in the fifth for Crossley, but the trend continued as Jordan held serve with a scoreless inning..
Jonathan Hickman singled up the middle in the bottom half of the fifth, but UWG couldn't push him across as the score remained 1-0 at the end of five.
After both teams blanked in the sixth, the Jaguars threatened in the top of the seventh as Augusta had runners on second and third after two singles and a passed ball. Working through the jam, Jordan got the second out of the inning courtesy of a lineout, before
Jackson Hodnick relived Jordan and struck out the next batter in three pitches to get the Wolves out of the jam with their lead still intact.
In the bottom half of the inning, Calabro got UWG going with a lead-off single but nothing would come of it as we went into the seventh inning.
In the seventh, Hodnick would pitch a perfect top half of the inning while the UWG offense exploded for five runs in the bottom half. Two walks drawn by
Edgar Cruz and Trevor Presnell and a fielder's choice from
Jared Emory loaded the bases for West Georgia with just one out in the inning. A balk from Augusta would score Presnell before a two-run double from
Jonathan Hickman scored Cruz and Emory to extend the Wolves' lead to 4-0.
UWG was nowhere near done in the inning as Calabro launched his second homerun of the game to put West Georgia up six. The Wolves threatened to score more in the inning but left two runners stranded as they took their six-run lead into the eighth inning.
Hodnick sat the Jaguars down in order in the top of the eighth to bring up the hot UWG bats in the bottom half of the inning. West Georgia kept their foot on the gas, by scoring seven runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Presnell, Fink, Calabro,
Henry Daniels, Webb, and Emory all drove in runs to put the Wolves up 13-0 before Hodnick pitched another shut-out inning to clinch the series for West Georgia.
Calabro led the way for West Georgia offensively as he finished with 4 hits, 2 home runs and four RBIs.
UWG will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Emmanuel for a midweek 3:00 p.m. matchup.
