Tuesday, April 18, 2006

SAINTS HAMMER BRAVES 10-3

Dahlonega, Ga. – North Georgia College & State University used three hits from freshman center fielder Josh Tate including his first home run of the season in route to a 10-3 win over University of West Georgia in non-conference action on Tuesday afternoon.

Josh Tate

Mark Thomas

North Georgia got the scoring started in the first inning off a one out double by Justin Rickett off the center field wall to score Jake Barrow to give the Saints a 1-0 lead. Erik Good then followed with a single up the middle to plate Rickett and extend the Saints lead to 2-0 after one inning.

Saints’ Tate smashed his first home run of the year to lead off the second inning. Tate’s 16th RBI of the season was a shot that just cleared the top of the wall in right-center and gave the Saints a 3-0 lead. North Georgia tacked on another run two batters later after Brian Lauderdale doubled and Barrow came up and beat out an infield single to score Lauderdale and take a 4-0 lead.

The Saints’ half of the third saw Tate drive in his second run of the day with a double to right center, and again two batters later Lauderdale drilled his second double of the game to drive in his 28th run of the year and give North Georgia a 7-0 lead after the third frame.

In the first half of the fourth inning Saints’ starting pitcher Mark Thomas got in his first jam of the day as he allowed back-to-back hits to Jim Bauemel and Adam Pritchard that left runners on the corners with two outs. Jason Parker then stepped to the plate and flied to deep right to end the inning keep Thomas’ shutout in play through four innings.

Braves’ outfielder Steve Ryan led off the fifth inning with a triple to center field over the head Tate. It took a two out line drive to left center from Mieko Bereich to score Ryan and put the Braves on the board as they trailed 7-1 heading to the bottom of the fifth. The bottom half of the inning saw Lauderdale beat out an infield single to score Tate, and a line drive by Barrow, just out of the reach of the leaping shortstop, tacked on another run and pushed the Saints lead to 9-1 heading to the sixth inning.

The Saints added a run in the bottom of the sixth, and The Braves rallied in the seventh to score two runs on three hits, but North Georgia held on to win 10-3.

Saints starting pitcher, Thomas, picked up the win as he improved to 6-4 on the late season. He allowed five hits and one run in five innings of work. R.M. Cozza picks up the loss for West Georgia as he pitched two innings and gave up eight hits and four runs in his short outing.

Box Score

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