WGTC drops decision to Chatt Valley despite pitching gem from Connor Wilson

PHENIX CITY, Alabama -- The West Georgia Tech Golden Knights baseball team lost a hard-fought road contest at Chattahoochee Valley (Ala.) Community College Monday afternoon, 5-3. 

West Georgia Tech lost despite a career effort from starting pitcher Connor Wilson. The Northgate High School product allowed just three hits through seven innings. Wilson allowed three runs -- one earned -- with five strikeouts and two walks. 

"Connor Wilson pitched a magnificent game and gave us a chance to win against a very good team," West Georgia Tech head coach Todd Pratt said. "We lost the game because of some untimely walks and errors. But the effort was there. Our kids played hard and they'll continue to get better. The things that we are struggling with right now are things that can be corrected as the season goes on and these guys get some experience." 

West Georgia Tech jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Logan Tillem got things going with a leadoff single to right field. Two batters later, Jacob Olson hit a double to put runners and second and third with one out. Josh Eidson followed with an RBI-groundout to score one run and Aaron Gonzalez came through with a two-out single, which scored Olson and gave the Golden Knights a two-run lead. 

The Pirates tied the game with a pair of runs in the fourth on a walk, two infield errors and a sacrifice fly. That made it a 2-2 game going into the fifth. 

The Golden Knights broke the tie in the top of the seventh when Logan Tillem scored on a wild pitch with two outs. That gave WGTC a 3-2 lead going into the bottom half of the seventh. 

The Golden Knights held the lead until Chattahoochee Valley scored three times in the eighth inning. 

CVCC got the leadoff man on base with a double, which ended the day for Wilson. 

WGTC reliever Chase Meyer came into the game in relief and got the first batter he faced to ground out, advancing the runner to third. 

But then a walk followed by infield error loaded the bases with one out. The next batter hit a grounder to Danny Vargas at third and Vargas smartly threw out the lead runner at the plate for the second out. The bases were still loaded and the game was still tied. 

The Pirates broke the tie thanks to a bases-loaded walk followed by a hit-batsman, and CVCC led 5-3 going into the ninth. 

WGTC got the tying run to the plate in the ninth thanks to a one-out single by Avery Roth, but failed to do any more damage. 

"Tip your hat to Chattahoochee Valley. This is a tough place to play and this is obviously a very talented and well-coached team. We hung with them today and we probably should have won the game, but mental errors and mistakes proved to be the difference. But I'm not going to get down on our kids, because I believe we showed today that we are capable of competing against high-level competition. We just have to play smarter, and we will," Pratt said. 

West Georgia Tech will not play again until next Tuesday, March 29, at home against South Georgia starting at 2:05 p.m. That game will open up WGTC's second conference series of the season, with the final three games of the four-game set being played at South Georgia the following Friday and Saturday.