Tuesday, April 15, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: David Beall, Sports Information Director

FLANIGAN AND SAINTS STORM PAST TORNADOES 9-7
Junior belts grand slam to seal win

Box Score | Gameday

DAHLONEGA, GA – North Georgia College & State University used a two-out, two-strike grand slam off the bat of Rob Flanigan Tuesday evening to slip by the Tornadoes of Brevard College 9-7 in non-conference action at the baseball complex.

The win keeps the Saints on a wild ride that has seen them win 10 of their last 11 and improve to 28-17 on the year, while Brevard falls to 10-31 on the season.

With the bases loaded and one run across in the bottom of the eighth, Rob Flanigan continued his hot streak and sent a long ball the other way, just clearing the fence in left-center to give North Georgia a 9-7 come-from-behind win.

The Tornadoes jumped on the board in the opening inning as Josh Miller sent a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 1-0. Mitch Hefner and Spencer Linn followed with RBI hits later in the inning to make it a 3-0 BC lead after a half inning.

North Georgia came right back and tied the game on three hits as Andre Airich sent a ball down the left field line to score Logan Sharrett and Flanigan to make it 3-2. Chad Sage promptly followed the extra-base hit with a single up the middle to tie the game 3-3 after just an inning of play.

Brevard capitalized on a pair of North Georgia errors in the second inning and jumped right back on top as Jesse Swain raced to the plate on a miscue and Adam Arrowood grounded out to push two more runs across and give the visitors a 5-3 second inning lead.

The Tornadoes scored another run in the fourth on fielding error by the Saints to make it 6-3, but Ross Book got the run right back for North Georgia in the bottom of the inning with a double to left-center, scoring Daniel Petitti to make it 6-4.

Linn added another RBI for the Tornadoes in the seventh, driving in a run on a sacrifice fly to centerfield to give Brevard a 7-4 lead and set up the dramatic eighth inning rally by the Saints.

North Georgia's Garrett Lussi picked up the win in relief, improving to 3-2 on the year with 3.1 innings of work out of the pen. Lussi surrendered three hits and struck out one to snag the victory. Jacob Rickett came on in the ninth and shut down the Tornadoes with a perfect inning for his third save of the season.

Luke Smithson (0-3) suffered the loss for Brevard in just 1/3 of an inning, allowing a hit and two unearned runs while walking two.

North Georgia (28-17, 13-11 PBC) returns to action Wednesday evening at the baseball complex, hosting Southern Wesleyan University at 6:00 p.m.

-NGCSU-

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