TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The West Georgia baseball team kicked off its first away series of the season by taking game one, 7-3, over Florida A&M, but falling in game two 6-0. Through a pair of seven-inning contests, the series is tied at 1-1 with two nine-frame games left.
Stellar pitching by
Lane Pearson and
Brendan Parks, combined with
Blake Bradford's two-run homer, helped the Wolves (8-5) grab a game one win over the Rattlers (5-10). In game two, FAMU rebounded with a 6-0 victory after out-hitting UWG 9-1. Despite losing, the second contest was highlighted by
Sam Cole recording a complete game, bringing his season total to two.
Following today's doubleheader, head coach Jeff Smith said, "Lane Pearson threw the ball extremely well and Parks (Brendan Parks) came in and did the rest. On offense in game one, we really swung the bats. In game two, we needed to eliminate mistakes, especially defensively. We made a couple of errors that we don't typically make. Overall our guys competed hard today."
GAME ONETaking on the starting UWG pitching duties today was right-handed senior
Lane Pearson. Through 19 innings across three appearances, Pearson has posted a team-best 1.89 ERA with an ASUN-high 28 strikeouts. FAMU started senior righty Caleb Granger on the mound. Prior to today, the 2024 SWAC Pitcher of the Year posted a .64 ERA with nine strikeouts.
As predicted, the out-of-conference contest started off as a pitching battle. Through two scoreless frames, both pitchers tallied three strikeouts while not conceding a hit.
The game stayed locked at 0-0 until center fielder
Cooper Prince put the Wolves 1-0 in the top of the third with a ground out RBI to third base. Still in this inning, FAMU tied the game at one apiece on a RBI single.
During the top of the fourth,
Blake Bradford cracked a two-run homer to put the Wolves back on top, 3-1. This marked Bradford's second home run of the season.
In the following frame,
Landon Weidner pushed the UWG advantage to 4-1 with an RBI double deep into center field. Before the inning was over, the Rattlers dashed the West Georgia lead to 4-2.
Exploiting a FAMU pitching change, UWG quickly loaded the bases in the sixth. With Wolves covering each bag, back-to-back walks pushed the West Georgia lead to 6-2. The bottom of the sixth marked the ending of Pearson's day on the mound. Through five frames, Pearson let up two runs off of four hits while striking out eight batters. This brings his season punchout total to 35 through 24 innings on the mound. Pearson was relieved by senior lefty
Brendan Parks.
Similar to the previous inning, UWG opened the seventh by quickly loading the bases. Taking advantage of the situation,
Mason Cooper reached on a fielder's choice that drove a West Georgia player home. Luckily for the hosts, UWG was unable to scrap any more runs.
West Georgia held on to win 7-3 after FAMU scored one last run in the seventh.
In two innings, Parks gave up one run and one hit while striking out four Rattlers. This brings his season strikeout total to 16 through nine frames.
GAME TWO
Starting on the mound for UWG in game two was junior righty
Sam Cole. Coming off of a complete game performance in the Wolves' run-rule win over EKU, Cole posted a 3.00 ERA with 14 strikeouts prior to today. FAMU started left-handed freshman Garrett Workman in game two. Through his 12.1 innings on the mound, Workman held a 10.95 ERA with seven strikeouts.
Like game one, it took until the third inning for either team to get on the board. The Rattlers were the first to strike thanks to a two-run RBI double. After this, FAMU extended their lead to 4-0 on a sacrifice fly followed by a
questionable balk that allowed a runner to take home.
The hosts kept this four-run advantage until a UWG error in the fifth resulted in a Ratter run, and then an RBI double in the sixth made it 6-0.
UWG fell 6-0.
BY THE NUMBERS
For the second straight week, Cole pitched a complete game. In six innings, Cole posted a season-average 3.00 ERA after allowing two runs off nine hits. The Tampa native also struck out a pair of Rattlers, bringing his total to 16.
As a team, FAMU took the edge at the plate, out-hitting UWG 14-7.
With today's game one win, Pearson moves to 3-0 on the season.
When talking about how strong the Pearson and Parks mound combination has been, coach smith stated, "
It's huge for us to have these guys playing like this. Winning game one puts us in position to win the series, and that's what they have been doing."
Continuing to talk about today's pitching, and other factors in game two, Smith said, "Sam Cole threw the ball extremely well. He gave up two runs in six innings. We made three errors tonight which killed us. It's also hard to win when you can't get a hit or walk. Their starter in game two did extremely well keeping us off balance. We have to do a better job tomorrow."
UP NEXT
The Wolves return to Moore-Kittles Field tomorrow for a rescheduled 11 a.m. game three. Live stat links are tagged on the UWG baseball schedule.
