Jaguar baseball team drops first-round game in conference tournament
By Shelbie Summerlin | Sports writer
AMERICUS—The Augusta University baseball team lost it first outing in the Peach Belt Conference tournament to Georgia Southwestern on Friday night by a score of 11-4.
Kyle Lodise, newly named PBC freshman of the year, went 2-5 with two home runs to bring in three of the four runs on the day for the Jaguars.
In the top of the first, Lodise went yard in the first at-bat of the game to put Augusta up 1-0.
A three-run bomb from Georgia Southwestern’s Reid Ragsdale in the bottom of the first put the Hurricanes ahead 3-1.
After scoring in the third and fourth innings, the Hurricanes made it a 6-1 ballgame.
In the fifth inning, Lodise cut the score in half at 6-3 as he homered to bring around Koby Ayala. An error on Georgia Southwestern allowed Pat Galvin to score, the last Jaguar run of the day.
The Hurricanes answered back by scoring their seventh run in the bottom of the fifth. They pulled away for good in the sixth inning as Chris Patterson hit an inside-the-park grand slam to left field to make the final score 11-4.
Koby Ayala went 2 for 3 for the Jaguars.
Starter Mason Bernard took the loss for Augusta.
The Jaguars will face Georgia College in the second round of the tournament this afternoon, Saturday, May 6, at 3:30 p.m.
Freshman Kyle Louise hit two homers, but it was not enough for the Jaguars against top-seeded and host Georgia Southwestern. At the top of the page, Koby Ayala had two hits for AU. (photos by Shelbie Summerlin)
