Augusta University baseball drops series to North Georgia
By Shelbie Summerlin | Sports writer
The Augusta University Jaguars came out strong on Friday, March 3, to open up the series against the University of North Georgia Nighthawks with a 14-7 win over their Peach Belt Conference rivals.
The Jaguars struck first with a Pat Galvin home run in the first inning and kept it rolling.
Augusta scored one more in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Trevor Maddox also went yard in the sixth. The Jaguars tacked on a few more insurance runs in the eighth to secure the win.
Augusta rounded up 16 hits total. Galvin, Koby Ayala and Maddox led with three hits each.
Mason Bernard got the win after pitching six innings. He only allowed four runs on six hits and had four strikeouts. Brian Trepanier, Logan Howell and Aedan Cates all put in relief work.
On Saturday, March 4, Augusta was shut out 9-0 by North Georgia.
The Jaguars tallied one hit, by Charlie Erickson.
Augusta’s Britt Kelly took the loss. He pitched one and one-third innings and allowed six hits and four runs.
On Sunday, March 5, the Jaguars came out hot with three runs in the first but the momentum slowed down as the Nighthawks scored eight runs on the day.
Kyle Lodise would homer for Augusta in the fifth to tie the game 4-4. The following two innings would go scoreless before the Nighthawks rallied in the eighth and came out with three runs.
Jared Martin would lead off the ninth inning with a walk and make his way around the bases before scoring on a wild pitch to bring the final score to 8-5.
Jasper Dubberly took the loss for Augusta (3-6, 5-10).
Augusta managed to gather nine hits on the day. Harrison Aulds led the Jaguars with three hits.
Jason Bailey led North Georgia (4-5, 8-8) with three hits, including a double. Josh Sosa hit a solo homer.
The Augusta Jaguars will host the College of Saint Rose today, Tuesday, March 7, and Wednesday, March 8. Both games are slated to start at 2 p.m.
Heading into this week, AU Coach Chris Howell said the team must maintain focus.
“Our [plan] is to play a complete fundamental sound of baseball,” said Howell. “We have another day to play together and keep working towards our goals.”
Senior pitcher Turner Sircy said the team needs to bring the energy and not let up.
“We need to make sure that we show up with the same intensity to every game,” he said.
Redshirt freshman outfielder J. Ben Haynes said the team needs to push on knowing they can hang with anybody.
“As a team, we will move forward and keep playing our brand of baseball because we know our best baseball is ahead of us,” said Haynes.
Contact Shelbie Summerlin a ssumerlin@augusta.edu.
AU’s Harrison Aulds catches a fly ball. At the top of the page, left-hander Britt Kelly deals for the Jaguars. (photso by Madison Keel)
Augusta’s Kyle Lodise launches a home run in the third game of the North Georgia series. (photo by Madison Keel)
