Middle Georgia State give Golden Knights first tournament loss
WGTC SUFFERS FIRST LOSS IN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT 8-0 TO #2 MIDDLE GEORGIA; WILL PLAY AGAIN AT 7 PM FOR A SPOT IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
ALBANY, Georgia – The West Georgia Tech Golden Knights baseball team dropped an 8-0 decision to second-seeded Middle Georgia College in GCAA – Region 17 Tournament action Friday afternoon in Albany.
The loss puts the Golden Knights in a loser’s bracket ballgame at 7 p.m. later Friday against either Gordon State or Darton State, who will play at 3 p.m. Friday.
If the Golden Knights win the 7 p.m. ballgame, they will advance to the championship game and play Middle Georgia at noon tomorrow needing to win twice to win the championship.
WGTC had its seven-game winning streak, their longest of the season, snapped and fell to 26-29 overall.
Middle Georgia improved to 37-13.
“I’m still encouraged about our ball club, we just ran into a really good team that played a heck of a ballgame,” said WGTC head coach Todd Pratt. “We had a call go against us on what I thought was a foul ball and that really gave Middle Georgia more momentum. But Middle played great, and we just didn’t hit, so give them credit. We’ll need a solid outing from (Tyler) Banks tonight to get it done.”
WGTC starting pitcher Kyle Peals was effective through five innings, but ran into trouble in the 6th and the 7th, and was lifted with two outs in the seventh frame.
Peals worked 6.2 innings and gave up five runs on 12 hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
“Peals pitched a great game. He just ran into some problems later in the game but I think overall he did a great job for us today. We didn’t provide much behind him. I think this game will give him a lot to look forward to next season and for the rest of his career.”
Middle Georgia got on the board with a run in the bottom of the first inning and it stayed 1-0 until they scored again in the sixth to go in front 2-0. The big inning was a 4-run seventh which pushed the lead to 6-0.
MGC then ended the game with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the eight which extended the lead to 8-0 and gave them the win by virtue of the eight-run mercy rule put in place for the tournament.
West Georgia Tech had only five hits in the contest, one each by Beau Welborn, Rus Morman, Nic Vinson, Blake Butcher and Hudson Power. All were singles.
West Georgia Tech is playing in its first-ever postseason appearance in its second season as junior college Division 1 program.
The Golden Knights can still play for their first championship, but will have to win the nightcap on Friday.
Tyler Banks will get the start on mound for WGTC.