Opening win not enough as UNCP drops series

By Markus Franklin
Assistant Sports Editor

UNCP baseball coach Paul O’Neil stressed the importance of the Braves weekend series against Georgia College following UNCP’s 9-3 win over Pfeiffer April 15.

“We have to win two of three games this weekend to have any chance of qualifying for the Peach Belt Conference Tournament,”

O’Neil said. “Armstrong Atlantic already has one tie-breaker over us, and we cannot afford to have the other team we are battling for the last spot to have a tie-breaker over us.”

Unfortunately, the Braves could not seal the tiebreaker over GCSU as they lost two out of the three games April 19 and 20 to the Bobcats.

Jason Morales did his best to keep the Braves competitive all weekend with his powerful bat.

The senior from Fayetteville, N.C., drove in 14 runs during the three game series and hit four homeruns.

He had two homeruns in each of the first two games of the series to bring his total to five multi-homerun games this season.
Morales also tied Keith Whitman for the team lead in long balls with 14.

The Braves started the weekend series with an offensive outpouring and handed the Bobcats a 17-4 loss.

With the win, the Braves extended their winning streak to five games. UNCP scored nine runs in the first two innings while Justin Yow pitched an effective game in 6 and 2/3 innings of work.

The southpaw walked a season-high 10 batters, but scattered six hits and struck out five during a 148-pitch performance to improve his season record to 7-5.

“We have to pitch strikes, play solid defense and execute on offense,” O’Neil said. “That is the key for us to win ballgames. If we do that we can win any night.”

GCSU countered UNCP’s victory in game two after Derek Johns’ two-out grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Johns’ bomb gave GCSU an 8-5 vcitory.

UNCP pitchers Josh Bagley and Shawn Bumgarner kept UNCP close, but reliever Ryan Kirkman took the loss and his third blown save of the season.
The loss snapped the Black and Gold’s five game winning streak and set up the important rubber match up of the series.

In the final game of the series at Kurtz Field, the Braves gave up four runs in the second inning and six runs in the fifth inning to lose 13-6.

UNCP’s defense committed three errors in the loss and Tyler Wood gave up 11 hits and 11 runs to take the loss. Five GCSU hitters had at least two hits.

With the loss, the Braves are now tied with Armstrong Atlantic and GCSU in PBC play with a 12-10 conference record.