Nighthawks pound Southern Wesleyan

DAHLONEGA -- The University of North Georgia baseball team earned its second straight win with a 17-6 pounding of Southern Wesleyan on Wednesday evening at Bob Stein Stadium.

North Georgia scored 12 runs in the next two innings and never looked back en route to the Nighthawks' 15th win of the season

North Georgia jumped out of the gates early with seven runs in the first inning after sending 11 batters to the plate. Andrew Gordon got things started with a three-run home run over the leftfield fence.

After SWU scored two in the top of the second, UNG loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the frame and proceeded to score five runs against three different Warrior pitchers, extending the UNG lead to 12-2. Tremayne Toorie belted a bases-loaded double off the fence in left center to highlight the scoring.

The visiting Warriors used a pair of UNG fielding miscues with two outs paired with five hits in the third to plate four runs and cut the North Georgia lead in half at 12-6.

After 18 runs through the first two and a half innings, the next three innings were scoreless. North Georgia's Cameron Crawford ended SWU's sixth inning by gunning down Joe Boudolf at third after he tried to grab an extra bag following a single by J.J. Julian.

Back-to-back doubles by Beau Welborn and Joey Cecere in North Georgia's sixth inning ended the scoreless stretch and extended the Nighthawks' lead to 13-6.

In the bottom of the eighth an RBI single by Eason Spivey scored Toorie who tallied his second warning track double of the game two batters earlier. In the next at bat, Ryan Raper singled up the middle scoring Travis Naraine before Gordon ripped a single back up the middle to score both Raper and Spivey stretching the lead to 17-6.

North Georgia outhit the Warriors 16-10 led by Toorie's 4-6 night at the plate. The junior outfielder scored twice and batted in four runs. Gordon finished 3-6 with five RBI's and a pair of runs scored.

On the mound, Josh Bryan earned his first victory of the season to even his record at 1-1. The righthander threw five innings of relief work allowing no runs while scattering four hits.

Matt Arant led SWU (12-25) by going 3-5 from the plate.

North Georgia (15-17) returns to Peach Belt Conference action with a weekend series at Armstrong Atlantic State beginning with a 12:00 doubleheader on Saturday.