COLUMBUS, Ga. – As the Hurricanes approached the home stretch of the 2012 campaign, Georgia Southwestern was looking to play the role as spoiler as they traveled west to take on the Cougars of Columbus State University (26-15, 12-10 PBC). The home team denied GSW's upset quest as they won Friday night's game 3-1.
The game was controlled by Columbus State with a shaky pitching and fielding performance by the Hurricanes in the first inning. The Cougars scored all three of their runs off of pitcher Matthew Suggs in the first inning. Three CSU hits were compounded by two walks by Suggs and two errors behind him in the field that saw two of the three runs be charged as an earned run against the lefty.
The three-run lead for the Cougars would be reduced by one by GSW in the third inning. A one-out double by Jarrod Taylor was followed by a Les Cromer single, which set the table for the Hurricanes' only run of the evening. Michel Coffey would hit into a fielder's choice at second base, which gave Coffey his team-leading 24th RBI on the season.
The Blue & Gold's offense would fizzle out over the course of the remaining six innings as they would only eke out two hits for the rest of the game. The one run of support would spoil a quality start by Matthew Suggs who would take the loss in the game. The sophomore threw seven and two-thirds innings that saw him scatter seven hits with the two earned runs. He would also walk four batters while striking out nine Cougar batters.
Suggs was outdone by Columbus State's Tyler Carpenter who would pitch all eight innings for the home team. Carpenter conceded only four hits and the single earned run while walking two and striking out four.
Friday night's loss puts the Georgia Southwestern record at 9-31 (6-18 PBC) with eight games remaining in the 2012 season. Two of those remaining eight games will be played on Saturday afternoon as Georgia Southwestern and Columbus State will finish their series with a double header scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.