Chargers Earn Season Sweep of East Georgia State
Georgia Highlands faced off this week against the East Georgia State Bobcats in a four game GCAA series. In the opener, Highlands jumped out to a 3 run first inning lead, but found themselves trailing 5-3 heading into the bottom of the fourth. Palmer Sapp led off the frame with a basehit before Trenton Parker tied the game with a 2 run home run to left center. The Chargers would score 2 more runs in the inning and add another in the fifth to go up 8-5. The Bobcats would score a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings, but Zach Valentine came on in the ninth to close out the ballgame and earn his first save of the season. Conner Perry earned his 6th win of 2021 going 4 innings and allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks, while striking out 3 and freshman Caleb Garner threw 4 solid innings in relief. Trenton Parker led the way for the offense going 2-3 with a home run, a double, and 3 RBI's.
Game two started out the same way as the first one with the Chargers getting in front early before allowing the Bobcats to claw their way back into the game. GHC grabbed a first inning lead when Conner Todaro singled, stole second and third base and scored on a David Smith sacrifice fly. The Chargers would plate 4 more runs in the second inning, but the Bobcats would score a single run in the third inning and 4 more in the fourth to tie the game 5-5. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth however, the Chargers would come roaring back to score 5 runs, capped off by a 3 run double off the bat of Brandon Prince. Zach Valentine picked up his 4th win of the season in relief of starter Chase Townsend and Matthew Silka closed the game out throwing 2 scoreless innings to put the Bobcats to rest. Prince had 2 hits and 3 RBI's in the game, Conner Todaro was 3-4 with 4 RBI's and 2 stolen bases, and Trenton Parker and Ben Olson added 2 hits a piece to the GHC offensive attack.
After sweeping the first two games at home, the Chargers travelled to Swainsboro, GA to play the final two games against the Bobcats. A Joe Sutton home run in the first inning put GHC on top, and they would never look back. A 15 hit seige in support of a complete game performance from Johnny Dow (9IP 11H 4R 1ER 1BB 6K) led to an 11-4 victory and clinched the series for Highlands. Six Charger hitters tallied multiple hits in the game and seven Charger drove in runs in the contest. David Smith belted his 8th home run of the season and Gavin Harmon went big fly for the 4th time this year. The Win was Dow's seventh of the season and his 5th complete game on the year.
With the series in hand, things were not looking great for GHC in game for as East Georgia jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. In the top of the 4th GHC finally got on the board when Brandon Prince singled and scored on a Conner Todaro double. David Smith moved Todaro over to third with a ground ball and Trace Twardoski cashed in the run with an RBI single, but the Bobcats scored a run in the bottom half of the innning to push the lead out to 7-2. Ryan Suppa came on in relief and the Chargers took over the game from their. Suppa was dominant, throwing 3 scoreless innings and allowing just 1 hit while striking out 6 to earn his second win of the season. All nine hitters would pick up a hit for GHC in the game as the Chargers fought back to tie the game by scoring 4 runs in the fifth and 1 in the sixth. The big blow, however came in the top of the seventh when Ben Olson launched a go ahead 3 run blast to left field to put GHC on top 10-7. Suppa struck out the side in East Georgia's half of the ninth to seal the win and the series sweep for the Chargers.
The Chargers improve to 34-6 on the year and 13-3 in GCAA play. They will go on the road Tuesday to start a 4 game series against South Georgia State next week.