DAHLONEGA — Jessica Finch provided a nail-biting walk-off two-out infield single in the bottom of the 14th to score Stephanie Hartness from second and hand the University of North Georgia its third consecutive Peach Belt Conference Championship. The Nighthawks used a 4-3 win in the first game of the day against Augusta before the 14-inning thriller in game two.
GAME ONE
In a strange opener to the twin bill, North Georgia and Augusta combined for seven runs with just one RBI in the ballgame. The Nighthawks plated all four of their runs in the bottom of the first, scoring three runs on three wild pitches before Alexis Collis picked up the only RBI of the game with her single to left that scored Katie Block.
Augusta found their way onto the board in the top of the fourth scoring two runs off a pair of UNG infield errors. The Nighthawks turned things around defensively, shutting out AU in the final three innings of play to hold on to the one-run win.
GAME TWO
The second game of the day will likely go down as the top pitcher's duel in college softball this season. Two of the league's best pitchers, Paige Deschaine and Courtney Poole, went the distance for their respective teams allowing a combined nine hits in 28 frames of play.
Both teams stranded the bases loaded once in the game with Poole working out of a back-to-back-to-back walks jam in the ninth and Deschaine getting out of trouble in the 13th, when UNG had the bases loaded with just one out.
Ultimately, it was North Georgia that finally pushed a run across in the bottom of the 14th. After the Nighthawks started the inning with a fly out and a ground out, Hartness started a two-out rally with an infield single off the glove of the shortstop. Meredith Heyer kept the inning alive with a four-pitch walk that brought Finch to the plate. The UNG catcher put a weak dribbler down the third base line and barely legged out the single and Hartness, who never stopped running from second, came home to score on the throw to first to give the Nighthawks the win, 1-0.
NOTES
- The 14-inning game was the longest for North Georgia in almost five years to the date, just shorter than UNG's 15-inning 2-1 victory over Flagler on April 15, 2011.
- Courtney Poole (44-2) picked up a career-high 17 strikeouts in the 14-inning affair and totaled 24 Ks on the day. In all, Poole went 21.0 innings on the day allowing just five hits and three walks. The UNG ace tossed a combined 252 pitches in the doubleheader.
- The Nighthawks improve to 25-5 all-time against Augusta and have won 13 of the last 14 games with nine straight victories in the series dating back to 2013.
- 2016 marks the fourth time North Georgia has won 20 or more PBC games and the third year in a row. This is UNG's sixth Peach Belt regular season title (2009, '10, '11, '14, '15, '16) and their 11th regular season conference crown overall.
- UNG honored its seven seniors with the 2016 Senior Day ceremony after the doubleheader. The 2016 class is the winningest in program history.
NEXT UP
North Georgia will wrap up its regular season on Monday, hosting Montevallo in a doubleheader set for a 1 p.m. start at Haines & Carolyn Hill Stadium.
