13 seems to be lucky number for Jags baseball

April 23, 2013

Jags move into first place with 13-0 win, 13 game winning streak

Seems 13 is the Jaguars’ lucky number—and Nikolay Uherek’s.

After a seven-week march upward in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association standings, the Georgia Perimeter College baseball team stepped into the top spot Tuesday with a statistical collection of 13’s.

Uherek, a sophomore right-hander, pitched a one-hitter over five innings, the torrid Jaguar bats pounded out 13 hits and GPC extended its winning streak to 13 with a 13-0 home victory over Andrew College.

The win gave the Jaguars a 21-4 record in the GCAA and sole possession of first place in the conference because Darton State College fell 3-0 to Middle Georgia State Tuesday, slipping into second place at 20-5.

Georgia Perimeter won its 20th game in the last 21 league outings, and the Jaguars, 32-15, and haven’t lost a game in April. Their last defeat was 5-0 to Gordon State on March 30.

Cody Evans managed the only Andrew hit against Uherek, who a week earlier pitched a 13-0 victory at West Georgia Tech. Uherek (4-0) went five innings, striking out six and walking one.

Joseph Marlow and Ryan Lemonds each tossed a hitless inning to complete the shutout.

Powered by a three-run double by Pierce Ressmeyer, the Jaguars erupted for eight runs in the fourth inning for a 10-0 lead.

For the game Ressmeyer hit a single, double and triple, driving in five runs and scoring two. Russell Melton had three hits, three runs and three RBIs.

Hitting and pitching have been exceptional during the Jaguars’ 13-game win streak, which is a record for the program in the past decade and possibly back to its founding in 1965.

Melton (.441) and Trumon Jefferson (.407) rank second and fifth in the GCAA for batting averages in league completion. Ressmeyer is seventh at .388, and he leads the league in RBIs with 24, 39 in overall competition.

Also hitting over .300 in conference games are Wes Armstrong (.345), Erik Davis (.344), Ben Venters (.326) and Cody McCance (.308).

The Jaguar pitching staff leads the GCAA with a 1.47 ERA in conference play, and the rotation dominates the ERA top ten. Sam Bragg (1.02) is ranked second, Dawson Brown (1.09) is third, Dustin Beggs (1.48) fifth and Uherek (1.75) seventh. Recent starter Landon Hayes boasts a 1.80 league ERA.

Bragg, who pitched a one-hitter Sunday against West Georgia Tech and retired 27 straight batters, has 75 strikeouts, tied atop the league with Middle’s Javier Reynoso.

Next, the Jaguars travel to Cuthbert to conclude the series over the weekend. Then they face nationally ranked Darton in a four-game series, beginning with a visit to Albany April 30 and the regular-season finale at Jaguar Field May 3 and 4.

All four GPC - Darton games will be audio webcast with links at www.gpc.edu/athletic.