Georgia College gets the double dip, regular-season title and PBC tournament champs
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The third game Georgia College played in the Peach Belt Conference baseball tournament in Florida ended a little after 2 in the morning Sunday.
The fourth game began about 11 hours later.
The Bobcats were not drowsy.
Georgia College never trailed and was able to hold off a late-game rally to dispatch USC Aiken 7-5 Sunday and win the PBC tournament at Flagler’s Drysdale Field.
It’s the second straight PBC tournament championship for Georgia College, the first team to repeat since Kennesaw State – now in Division I in the Atlantic Sun – in 1997-98.
The Bobcats became only the fourth team in the past 10 seasons to win the regular-season and tournament championships.
Georgia College improved to 43-10, while USC Aiken fell to 35-19.
But there was action even before the first pitch.
Georgia College president Dr. Steve Dorman made the trip to St. Augustine for a graduation ceremony for the Bobcat seniors.
The Bobcats improved their seeding for the NCAA Division II baseball tournament, which held its selection show Sunday night.
Georgia College got a second seed and will play No. 7 Lincoln Memorial (35-19) at North Greenville, which got the first seed.for the Southeast Region. Columbus State is No. 4 and UNC Pembroke No. 5.
The Bobcats improved their seeding for the NCAA Division II baseball tournament, which will hold its selection show Sunday night.
Perry alum Cal Gentry led the Bobcats with a 2-for-4 game with two runs. Nate Schmal and Wesley Wommack added two hits each, and PBC player of the year Logan Mattix had a homer.
Bradly Cammack went the distance for GC, with four strikeouts and two walks to improve to 12-2.
The Bobcats led 5-1 after five and the teams exchanged runs in the seventh. USCA scored two in the eighth and one in the ninth, and the Bobcats added one in the eighth.
Cammack turned in a gutty performance, capped by the ninth inning.
The Pacers had runners on the corners with one out, got the second out, which was followed by a single to load the bases.
Cammack then got a game-ending grounder to second.
Three of Georgia’s runs were unearned, thanks to four USCA errors.
Georgia College won twice on Saturday/Sunday, beating North Georgia 7-6 on an 11th-innng walk-off, and then popping UNC Pembroke 12-6 in the Pool A finale to determine who played in the championship.
Matthew Miller singled through the right side with two outs to score Gentry for the walk-off win.
Schmal was 3-for-6 with two RBI and two runs and Brandon Purcell went 2-for-5 with five RBI to lead GC in the late/early 12-6 win. Miller, Wommack, and Mattix added two hits each.
Kyle King went five innings in relief to get the win.
The 43 wins are the most for the Bobcats since 2007, when they went 46-16, won the regular-season and tourney titles, and went 2-2 in the South Atlantic Regional.