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COLUMBUS – Down four runs early, the Columbus State University baseball team came roaring back to hand No. 9 West Georgia a 13-4 loss on Wednesday. The game was played at Burger King Stadium.
 
Columbus State (7-2) scored 13 unanswered runs, using five homers and 6.1 scoreless innings from the bullpen to secure the victory.
 
"I thought our bullpen was critical for us tonight," head coach Greg Appleton said. "We fell behind early and (Tyler) Cadenhead came out and put some zeroes on the board and kept us in the game until the offense got going."
 
The day started with scoreless first and second innings for both sides before West Georgia (10-1) broke through. A solo home run started the scoring and the Wolves plated three more in the inning to put the Cougars in a hole.
 
The Columbus State offense finally woke up in the sixth. Frank Wager crushed his fifth home run of the season to lead off the inning and Austin Pharr added a solo shot of his own three batters later.
 
Chase Brown and Drew Webb kept the inning going with base hits before Justin Evans tied the game at four with a two-run double just inside the third base bag.
 
Garrett Kirkwood followed with a walk and Mason McClellan unloaded on a slider, sending it over the wall in left-centerfield for the third home run of the inning to give the Cougars a 7-4 lead.
 
The Cougars got rolling again in the eighth, scoring six more runs. Two came across on a UWG defensive miscue and Robert Brooks added another RBI to his tally with a sacrifice fly.
 
Grant Berry and Pharr then went back-to-back with long blasts over the right field wall to punctuate the night for the CSU offense.
 
The bottom four in the Cougar order combined to go 9-for-17 at the plate on Wednesday, as Berry, Pharr, Brown and Webb all had multi-hit nights.
 
Jamie Boatright got the start for the Cougars, but lasted just 2.2 innings after giving up four runs. Tyler Cadenhead (1-0) slammed the door shut with 3.1 scoreless innings in relief, followed by two innings from Jalen Latta and a scoreless ninth out of Drew Reeves.
 
Columbus State now heads out for eight straight games on the road, starting this weekend at Rollins. The series begins Friday at 5 p.m. in Winter Park, Fla.