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By: Josh Fuller

COLUMBUS – Closing out the regular season, the 13th-ranked Columbus State University baseball team rallied from a 7-2 deficit to take a late inning lead before UNC Pembroke scored three runs in the final two innings to defeat the Cougars 10-9 Sunday. The game took place at Burger King Stadium at Ragsdale Field.
 
The Cougars finish the regular season with a 39-11 overall record and 23-7 mark in PBC play. The loss snapped CSU's 17-game winning streak.
 
"Give UNC Pembroke credit today for fighting back," said head coach Greg Appleton. "We didn't pitch well today at all and just couldn't score enough runs to win the game."
 
After a sloppy top of the first that resulted in a UNCP run, the Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the second. CSU played small ball after the first two runners reached base in the inning as Justin Evans put down a sacrifice bunt. Hunter Bowling followed and put the ball in play to pick up the RBI.
 
UNC Pembroke (27-22, 13-17) retook the lead in the third thanks to a two-out RBI single by Christian Snider.
 
CSU managed to push across a run in the third, but UNCP broke out for four runs in the fourth to go ahead 7-2. Caleb Kutsche hit two batters in the inning before Stibel Aleman Saba singled home a run. Drew Beaver followed with a three-run homer down the left field line.
 
Showing their fight, the Cougars answered the four spot with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Matt Nettles got it all started with a walk before moving to second on a wild pitch and stealing third. Evans quickly chased him home with a RBI single to make it a 7-3 game. After a fly out, Evans swiped second to put himself into scoring position for Tyler Fichter. Fichter capitalized on the run-scoring chance singling to center to score Evans.
 
The hits kept coming as Jackson Oliver singled up the middle with Ryan Ihle following with a RBI on a single through the left side of the infield. CSU had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but UNCP worked out of the jam.
 
Reliever Kyle Peals kept it a one-run game until the Cougars finally took the lead in the sixth. With two outs, Mike McClellan and Christian Miller singled to keep the inning alive for senior Blake Edwards. On Senior Day, Edwards came through with a three-run homer that just cleared the wall to put the Cougars ahead 9-7.
 
CSU would remain in front until the eighth. Nick Salisbury lined a double into the right-center gap before Aleman Saba hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
 
The Cougars put the go-ahead run on second in the eighth, but failed to score.
 
In the ninth, UNCP scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch.
 
Eight of the nine Cougar starters had a hit in the game with four turning in multi-hit days. Edwards was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs while Oliver was 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Ihle (1-for-5) and McClellan (1-for-4) each extended their hitting streaks to 18 games while Oliver's streak is now at 14.
 
Kutsche tossed four innings allowing seven runs on eight hits. Peals threw 3.1 innings in relief allowing two runs with three strikeouts. Kolton Ingram (2-2) took the loss for CSU.
 
Aleman Saba was 4-for-5 with three RBIs for the Braves.
 
Columbus State will now have 10 days to prepare for the start of the PBC Tournament in Florence, S.C. The Cougars will be the number one seed in the tournament and kickoff play in the tournament on Wednesday, May 11.