Jaguar baseball sweeps Sandsharks on senior weekend to make PBC tournament
By Shelbie Summerlin | Sports writer
Augusta baseball swept USC Beaufort at Jaguar Baseball Field over this past week to earn a place in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament for the first time since 2016.
AU, seeded eighth, will take on regular-season champion and top-seeded Georgia Southwestern in Americus at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 5, in the first round of the PBC Tournament, which has a double-elimination format.
They Jaguars (14-15, 25-22) also said good-bye to their seniors one last time on their home turf on Saturday, April 27, when the took both ends of a doubleheaders.
But the big weekend for AU baseball began on Friday, April 28, when the Jaguars rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to win 10-8 over USCB.
After the Sandsharks struck first, Augusta answered back with four runs in the bottom of the first for a 4-1 lead. Jordan Wilkie singled to left field to score Pat Galvin. Rushton Bowles tripled to right field to score Wilkie and Harrison Aulds, and Bowles scored on a wild pitch to end the scoring for the inning.
Both teams tacked on runs the next few innings before USCB took an 8-6 lead in the seventh, but Augusta did not let up as they scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to win the series’ first game.
In the eighth, Bowles scored on a wild pitch, Jared Martin scored on a passed ball, Koby Ayala singled up the middle to score Kyle LaRoche, and Ayala scored on a passed ball.
Kyle Lodise, Bowles and Galvin each racked up two hits to lead the Augusta offense.
Jasper Dubberly got the win, pitching the last two and a third innings.
Saturday’s doubleheader saw two home-team wins to send off the Jaguar seniors on a winning note.
In the opener, the Jaguars came out hot to start the day, scoring six runs in the first en route to a 17-4 victory.
Aulds hit a sac fly to right field to score Lodise. Then Galvin scored on a passed ball before Bowles singled to right field to plate Parker Ingram and Wilkie. Bowles scored on an error by the third baseman as LaRoche reached first. Ayala singled up the middle to score Mike Morrison.
The second inning also proved the Jaguars were rolling as they added four more to make the score 10-0.
Wilkie singled to the shortstop to score Galvin, and then an error on the USCB catcher scored Wilkie and Aulds. LaRoche doubled off the left-center wall to score Morrison.
In the third inning, Ingram doubled to left field to score Galvin.
USCB made some noise in the fourth as they tried to combat Augusta’s hot bats by scoring three runs. They scored one more in the fifth but couldn’t find the momentum to keep it going.
The Jaguars capped off their scoring in the sixth with six more runs. Bowles homered to left field, and Lodise homered to left field, plating LaRoche and Morrison. Not to be outdone, Wilkie went yard to bring around Aulds.
Aulds went 4-4 to lead Augusta in hits in the second game of the series.
Logan Howell went all seven innings for the Jaguars. He struck out five and only allowed five hits.
Before the second game of the day, Augusta celebrated their seniors in Galvin, Dubberly, Martin, Charlie Erickson, Cody Schieder, Dominic Canale and Brian Trepanier.
After a USCB home run by Julian Galassi in the top of the second made the score 1-0, Ingram sent one to the trees past the cages to score Wilkie, making the score 2-1.
In the third, Wilkie singled to right field to score Galvin, and Morrison singled to the shortstop to plate Aulds.
Augusta added a run in the fourth. The Sandsharks tied it up in the seventh.
Martin’s homer to right field in the bottom of the eighth pushed the Jaguars to a 6-5 victory and a series sweep.
Wilkie went 2-3 and had one run and one RBI to lead the Jaguars.
Trepanier got the win for Augusta. He closed the game’s final two and a third innings and only gave up one hit.
Georgia Southwestern enters as the PBC Tournament favorite with a 22-8 conference record and a 29-17 mark overall. The Jaguars beat the Hurricanes two out of three times in late February.
Contact Shelbie Summerlin at SSUMMERLIN@augusta.edu.
Pat Galvin rounds third after hitting a solo home run in the weekend opener against USC Beaufort. At the top of the page, Jared Martin (44) and Harrison Aulds (8) celebrate a winning season for the Jaguars, who advanced to the Peach Belt Tournament at Georgia Southwestern. (photos by Shelbie Summerlin)
Parker Ingram led AU with nine home runs, including a two-run shot in the regular-season finale, part of a strong offensive team that has scored nearly seven runs per game. (photo by Shelbie Summerlin)
