DAHLONEGA -- Senior day was quite special for the No. 12 University of North Georgia baseball team's senior class as seven of the eight UNG upperclassmen saw action with each offensive player getting at least one hit, four seniors smacking home runs and senior southpaw Phillip Taylor earning the victory on the mound as the Nighthawks downed Emmanuel, 23-9, Sunday afternoon at Bob Stein Stadium.
With the win, UNG ends the regular season at 35-14 overall while the Lions end their season at 10-35.
Today's game marked just the fourth time in school history that North Georgia has scored 23 or more runs in a game and the 24 hits in a single game is second best in program history. Both happened for the first time since 2008 and 2009, respectively.
After Nighthawk starter Dylan Peppers surrendered a two-run home run in the top of the first, the North Georgia bats backed him up scoring 16 runs in the next two frames.
Emmanuel would score a single run in the third and two more in the fifth, but the Hawks' bats heated up again scoring four runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh. The late rally included home runs from a quartet of seniors: Cameron Crawford, Tremayne Toorie, Travis Naraine and Andrew Gordon. Naraine's homer was just the second in his four-year career in Dahlonega while Gordon's came in a pinch-hit opportunity, his only at-bat of the game.
All 23 UNG runs were earned.
Taylor got the win on the mound for the Nighthawks, allowing just one earned run on two hits in his 3.0 innings of work.
North Georgia will begin postseason play this Saturday at the Peach Belt Conference Tournament in Columbus, Georgia. The winner of the single-elimination tournament will get the PBC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Nighthawks will face Georgia College in the quarterfinals. First pitch for the game is set for 11 a.m., at Golden Park.
