March 19, 2011
No. 28 Columbus State Baseball Falls to No. 5 Georgia College
Milledgeville – No. 28 Columbus State scored the game's first run but Georgia College scored eight unanswered to take game two of the Peach Belt Conference series 8-1 Saturday afternoon at John Kurtz Field. The Cougars fall to 18-8 on the year and 4-4 in Peach Belt action while GC improves to 19-6 this season and 5-3 in conference play.
Just like in the first game of the series which CSU won 11-9 Friday night, the Cougars got on the scoreboard first posting a run in the third inning. Eric Weiss got things going with a one-out walk and then advanced to second base on a single by Cameron Scott. Ryan Lewis drove in the only run of the game for Columbus State with a single to leftfield plating Weiss putting runners on first and second. A strikeout and a groundout ended the threat with the visitors ahead 1-0.
Similar to the Cougars scoring frame in the third, Georgia College received a one-out walk and single to set-up Richard Pirkle's double to knot the game at one all. Benton Yaun singled and advanced to second on an error in the outfield allowing both runners to come across and give GC a 3-1 lead after four.
Columbus State had two runners reach safely in the sixth inning but a caught stealing attempt and a double play ended the rally.
GC wasted no time taking advantage of the momentum as Travis Echols hit a bases clearing double to leftfield extending the Bobcats lead to 6-1. Yaun and Echols each added a RBI single in the seventh inning to close out the scoring in the contest.
Eric Pettepher (4-0) retired CSU side in order in the eighth and ninth inning to close out the ball game. Pettepher tossed a complete game allowing eight hits and the one run in the third inning. He also recorded seven strikeouts. Tanner Funk led the offense for the Bobcats going 3-for-4 including a walk and scored three times. Three other GC hitters picked up two hits in the game as they collected 12 hits on the afternoon.
Ryan Lewis was a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish for the Cougars and was also hit by a pitch. Bruce Alter went 2-for-4 and was the only other CSU batter to have a multi-hit performance. Thomas Campbell fell to 3-2 on the season after surrendering six runs over five innings. Chase Gilreath worked 1.2 innings in relief while Robby Nettles threw 1.1 innings of shutout ball.
