Baseball takes three of four from Erskine

Rain forced the  No. 18 Georgia College baseball team to push its series opener at Erskine last week back a day and cancelled its April 25 game at Benedict, but that didn’t stop them from taking three out of four games in the series.

The scheduling shift kept one home game for the Bobcats on Friday while moving the Thursday game to April 25, and added a game to make a double-header Saturday at home.

In the first of four games versus Erskine, the Flying Fleet took the lead scoring a run in the top half of the first inning. Senior catcher Richard Pirkle responded with a home run to left center, scoring Josh Young to lead 2-1 at the end of the first. Erskine came back with a home run of their own to score two runs.

The Bobcats fired back in the fourth when Pirkle doubled to start the inning and was able to score on a single by junior shortstop Tanner Funk.

Both teams remained at three runs each on the board until the bottom of the seventh when junior third baseman Travis Echols took a swing on a 3-1 count to send a ball over the left field wall for an RBI.

The Bobcats scored four runs on six hits to win 4-3.

Richard Pirkle went 3-3 on Friday with two RBI’s.

“I was just swinging at strikes today. These past two weeks I’ve just been swinging at a lot more strikes and putting balls in play,” Pirkle said. “When you put it all together we had pitching; we had a ton of hitting. It was a good game. We were pretty solid defensively, pitching and we had a bunch of hits. That’s how you win games.”

The Bobcats returned to John Kurtz Field on an overcast Saturday, but as the umpire yelled,  “Play ball,” the sun jumped out to make it a hot doubleheader.

The Bobcats scored first with Pirkle batting in Young after he walked. Erskine scored two to lead the Bobcats by one until the bottom of the second. Echols singled to lead the inning and worked his way to third after an error and a failed pick-off attempt.

Sophomore first baseman Cody Maas flied out to centerfield scoring Echols. Georgia College scored a run in both the third and fourth inning. Scoring two runs in the fifth the Flying Fleet tied it up at four each.

Three Bobcat batters were walked in a row loading up the bases. A pitch, forcing a run in for the Bobcats, hit sophomore designated hitter Ikaika Anderson. Another runner was pushed around to score on a balk by the Erskine pitcher.

The sixth inning  ended with two runs, no hits and two left on base. The Bobcats scored two more in the eighth to make it 8-4. But Erskine, still fighting, scored four runs on five hits to tie the game 8-8. Junior center fielder Patrick Daugherty singled to score the winning run edging out Erskine 9-8.

The second game on Saturday saw much less action from the Flying Fleet  as  senior left-handed pitcher Jason Nicholas pitched seven innings, striking out eight batters to help keep the Fleet from scoring.

“That’s pretty much my main goal is, to not give up runs and keep our team in the game,” Nicholas said.

Senior pitcher Tanner Moore threw in the last two innings and kept the momentum going as Erskine had no runs to show at the end of nine innings.

“Starting pitching can keep you in the game and you hope to win a game like that,” said Head Coach Tom Carty.

The Bobcats put up seven runs with help from Travis Echols, Shawn Ward, Richard Pirkle and Tanner Funk.

“I’m still working on a few things with my swing; trying to get it back and drive in runs and do what I’m supposed to do to help the team.” Funk said. “It was a good weekend for us. Just finish strong and hopefully we will peak at the right time.”

Georgia College traveled to Erskine to play the last of the series Monday, April 25, only to find it difficult to win on the road. Erskine pulled ahead to win 7-5 leaving the Bobcats at 32-15 overall on the season.

The Bobcats scored five runs in the first three innings only to see Erskine edge to four runs in the bottom of the third. The score remained 5-4 Georgia College until the Flying Fleet scored three to win the game as Georgia College was unable to retaliate in the ninth.

The Bobcats have proven they can win at home going 21-4 in John Kurtz Field, but are only 11-11 on the road.

The Bobcats are one game behind Columbus State University in the PBC West. Georgia College faces its last opponent, Armstrong Atlantic, Friday, April 29 and with a double header on Saturday, April 30.

“(We need to) really focus on Armstrong Atlantic coming in Friday and Saturday and finish strong in the conference,” Coach Carty said. “We want to work towards trying to catch Columbus for the division.  We have to win one more that they win next week.”