CARROLLTON, Ga. – For just the second time this season, the UWG baseball team were shutout as the Wolves fell 3-0 to the West Florida Argonauts on Friday.
Walks and offensive production were the major contributors to the demise of West Georgia (25-11, 13-8 GSC) as the UWG pitching staff surrendered eight walks while the offense only generated five hits in the series finale loss to West Florida (22-14, 13-8 GSC).
Carson Crossley got the start for the Wolves and struggled with command early as the right hander surrendered four walks and hit a batter through 1 2/3 innings, leading to West Florida taking a 1-0 lead in the second.
Ryan Whitener relived Crossley in the second to get the final out, before giving up a run of his own in the third to extend UWF's to 2-0.
The run in the third inning would be the lone run that Whitener would give up as he carved through the Argonauts order, before coach Smith made another call to the bullpen. After Whitener surrendered four hits and one earned run in 3 2/3 innings,
Ronny Piepmeier got the call from the bullpen to relieve Whitener in the sixth.
West Florida struck again in the seventh as a lead off walk and an RBI-double from Preston Moore extended the Argos lead to 3-0. After starting Game Two on Thursday,
Ezra Brown got the call from the bullpen in Game Three and extinguished the seventh inning fire to keep the Wolves deficit at three.
The West Georgia bats still couldn't get anything going in the bottom half of the seventh, sending us to the eighth where Brown walked the second batter he saw, before hitting the next batter, propelling coach Smith to make his fourth pitching change of the game as he brought in
Bay Witcher. Witcher intentionally walked UWF's Darrien McDowell, loading up the bases before getting a strikeout to retire the side.
Witcher pitched a clean inning in the eighth, setting the stage for the UWG offense as the Wolves had their final chance in the bottom of the ninth.
The Argos' Salvatore Ferro retired the first two batter fairly quickly, bringing Copper Prince to the plate. Prince singled to keep West Georgia alive before
Jackson Webb drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate in
Joseph Glozier. Glozier worked the count but popped up to the shortstop, ending the game.
Henry Daniels,
Anthony Calabro,
Logan Fink,
Sam Ladner, and Prince all picked up a hit for the Wolves.
West Georgia will be back in action on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. when they hit the road for a non-conference matchup against Emmanuel.
