Hurricanes rally against VSU, lose late

Hurricanes rally against VSU, lose late

Georgia Southwestern rallied from a five-run deficit to take a 7-6 lead in the fifth inning; only to see Valdosta State pull away with a four-run seventh and go on to the 13-9 win on Wednesday afternoon in Valdosta.

Valdosta State (2-2) got on the board first off of Brandon Decker's first home run of the season. Chaz Bagwell walked to open the bottom of the first inning and came around to score when Decker hit a 1-0 pitch from Hurricane starter Stephen Daneman over the wall in right-center field to post the Blazers to a 2-0 advantage.

VSU upped its lead to 6-0 in the second inning as Jon Koenigsfeld doubled to open the inning and moved to third on a Jordan Hollis ground out. A passed ball allowed Koenigsfeld to score while Ryan Danbury reached on an error by Carroll at short and stole second before scoring on a Decker single to center. Clayton Cain proceeded doubled to center to score Decker and came home for the final run of the inning when Jake Summers singled up the middle.

Georgia Southwestern (2-1) got two runs back in the top of the third. Shane Doyle walked to open the inning and scored as Bud Long hit a shot over the wall in left, cutting the Hurricane deficit to 6-2.

The Hurricanes took the lead in the fifth inning as they scored five runs. Zack Stanton singled to open the inning before Trent Dooley and Heath Lock walked to load the bases. Two batters later, Poston singled to center to score both Stanton and Dooley while Lock came home on a Carroll base hit. Long proceeded to double down the left field line to plate Poston while Carroll scored the go-ahead run when Chris Lingham reached on a Koenigsfeld fielding error to give Georgia Southwestern a 7-6 advantage.

The Blazers evened the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the inning as Bobby Triglia singled and scored on a Hollis two-out base hit while the two teams traded runs in the sixth inning.

Valdosta State jumped back on top in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of extra base hits. Galen Smith was hit by a pitch to open the inning and moved to second when Danbury followed with a base hit. Bagwell was also hit by a pitch before Cain delivered a bases clearing triple. After Summers walked, Austin Smith doubled to right to plate Cain and push the Blazer lead to 12-8.

Danbury scored on a wild pitch in the eighth inning to close out the scoring.

Bud Long led GSW at the plate with a 2-for-5 game, including a home run (2), double and three RBI. Zack Stanton, Trent Dooly, Paschel Poston and Kevin Carroll had multi-hit games for GSW, as well.
 
Jared Allen (0-1) took the loss for Southwestern as he allowed four runs on three hits in a third of an inning on the mound.
 
Ross Gusky picked up the win for VSU as he allowed two hits and two runs, only one of which was earned, while striking out six in four innings of work.

GSW heads to West Alabama for a four-game set starting on Friday.