DAHLONEGA, Ga. - Once trailing by eight runs, the University of West Georgia Baseball team fell short of a comeback against the North Georgia Nighthawks on Tuesday as the Wolves fell 12-10 in Dahlonega.
UWG (22-23, 13-14 GSC) swung the bat well, but struggled on the mound and in the field, allowing 12 runs on 11 hits while committing four errors, leading to their two-run loss to North Georgia (31-15, 16-8 PBC).
Ronny Piepmeier got the ball for West Georgia and before he stepped foot on the mound,
Patrick McCullough begun the game with a lead-off home run, giving the Wolves an early 1-0 lead.
Piepmeier threw two shutout, no-hit innings before his day came to an end as head coach
Jeff Smith called on
Ty Davis to pitch the third. Davis struggled with command as he walked two batters while the UWG defense committed two errors, leading to a three-run inning for the Nighthawks.
In the fourth, North Georgia added to their lead as three-time PBC Freshman of the Week winner, Noah Darden, hit a two-run home run to give the Nighthawks a 5-1 lead. Later in the inning, Edwin Bowman delivered an RBI-single before
Jake Jordan walked in a run to make it 7-1 North Georgia. The Nighthawks weren't done in the inning as they pushed two more runs across to take an eight-run lead into the fifth.
West Georgia quickly loaded up the bases in the top of the fifth until McCullough delivered an RBI-single, scoring
Mason Cooper. Moments later,
Jared Emory hit a grand slam to get the Wolves back into the ball game, by cutting their deficit to three.
Brady Simpson retired North Georgia's side in the bottom half with little issues, keeping the momentum in favor of UWG.
West Georgia's bats got right back to work in the top of the sixth as they loaded up the bases again. The Wolves were able to get within one run after sacrifice flys from McCullough and
Cooper Prince as we went to the seventh.
In the seventh inning, North Georgia swung the pendulum back in their favor, by pushing three runs across to extend their lead to four as the game progressed to the eighth.
Brendan Parks struck out the Nighthawks' side in order in the bottom of the eighth as the Wolves went to the final frame with three outs to play with.
UWG didn't go away easily as they scored two runs in the ninth but that's all they could push across, resulting in a hard fought 12-10 loss.
West Georgia will be back in action this weekend where they welcome the Valdosta State Blazers for the final series of the season, beginning on Friday at 5:00 p.m.
