By Chris Whitaker, The Americus Times-Recorder
West Alabama took two games from Georgia Southwestern on Saturday by scores of 8-3 and 4-2.
The 25th-ranked Tigers built a 3-0 lead in the first inning of Game 1 and led 8-0 before the Hurricanes cracked the scoreboard in their final at-bat.
Jared Allen was 3-for-4 on the day, and Daniel Lynn had a two-run single in the ninth to lead the Hurricanes (2-4). Noble Coley drove in the team's other run with a bases-loaded walk.
R.M. Cozza (0-2) took the loss, going 7.1 innings and allowing five runs on eight hits.
"They were putting the ball in play early on in our end, and we kept getting ground balls that were finding holes," said coach Bryan McLain. "When we finally got out of that inning I told them ground balls are what we're supposed to do, and if we keep doing what we're doing, they're going to start going to guys with white jerseys on, and they did. (Cozza) did a great job, and we held them in check the next seven innings."
Nick Wheeler was 3-for-5 with two two-run singles in the first and ninth innings for the Tigers (3-1). Mike Schmitt (2-0) pitched seven innings allowing no runs on three hits in recording the win.
McLain said GSW made some "bonehead" plays that helped the Tigers pull away in the ninth off one hit and three errors.
"If we played a little better defense that inning, the score would have been 5-3 at the time and we'd be up with the bases loaded and a chance to win," he said.
Rob Dahlberg and Dallas Rogers also had two hits and a RBI apiece for UWA.
The Hurricanes led 2-1 in Game 2 when the Tigers used a 3-run fourth inning to win the 7-inning game. An error in the fourth kept the inning alive. That's when Noah Sanders hit a two-run homer to put UWA up 4-2.
"That guy should have never came to the plate that inning," said McLain. "We've got to make that play. When we get in a spot like that where we get a ground ball on a double play, we've got to turn that. We didn't get it done, and to their credit, they took advantage after that."
Zack Whitman pitched a complete game, allowing four runs - one earned - on three hits.
RBI-singles from Allen and Chris Lingham in the first and second innings would be all the runs GSW would score.
Cody Adams had two hits in the game for the Hurricanes.
"I was disappointed a little bit offensively," said McLain. "To take advantage of the two pitching performances we had; we did a really good job pitching. The scores don't really show how well we had pitched. We'll try to bounce back and play well (Sunday). We'll try to put ourselves in position to win at the end of the day and see what happens."
The two teams will finish the four-game series today with the first pitch set for 2 p.m.
PICTURED: Cody Adams
PHOTO BY: Chris Fenn