ROME, Ga. - Paul Sorrow blasted his second grand slam of the season to bring Georgia Southwestern back from a four-run deficit in the ninth inning only to see Shorter University win, 12-10, on Wednesday afternoon at the Ledbetter Complex.
Sorrow has been red hot since the end of March with five home runs in his last five games. He's knocked in 11 runs over that stretch and scored seven times. On Wednesday, Shorter pitchers walked four consecutive batters to open the ninth inning and trimmed the Hawks lead to 10-6 and to set the stage for Sorrow's heroics.
The Hurricanes forced two outs to start the bottom of the ninth before Tayor Cato singled and George Ragsdale delivered the walk-off home run to left center.
GSW suffered its fourth-straight loss and dropped to 11-26 overall while Shorter snapped a four-game losing streak and improved its record to 14-15.
Shorter scored a run in the first inning, two more in the fourth and four in the sixth to open a 7-0 lead on GSW.
The Southwestern bats came alive in the seventh inning. Sorrow opened the frame with a walk and quickly scored when Josh Tatnall popped his second home run of the spring. After GSW loaded the bases, it was Will Redding's turn to pick up some RBIs as he delivered a three-run double to pull the Hurricanes within two runs at 7-5.
Shorter answered with three runs in the eighth to take a 10-5 lead into the ninth inning.
Tatnall, Brandon Weaver and Brett Burgess had two hits apiece to pace the Hurricanes. Sorrow turned in his second four-RBI effort in the last five games. Redding had three RBIs and Tatnall added two.
Ragsdale led the Hawks 20-hit barrage with a 4-for-6 afternoon that included four RBIs. Cato went 3-for-4. Bryan Mathews added a pair of doubles and Patrick Sanderson had three hits.
The Hurricanes used six pitchers on Wednesday. Starter Justin Barnes threw four innings and allowed three runs. Michael Ranieri and Kyle Romstadt each pitched 1 1/3 innings while Daniel Perez and Matthew Hubbard recorded an out apiece. Coty Graham (1-4) threw the final 1 1/3 innings.
Shorter brought five hurlers to the hill during the game. Starter Justin Machado lasted 6 1/3 innings and held GSW to two runs before running into trouble in the seventh. Brantley Flanagan (2-0) came in to face Sorrow in the ninth, but settled to get the final three outs and the win.
GSW returns to Americus to host Wingate University in a three-game non-conference series starting Saturday with doubleheader at 1 p.m.