Chargers split conference series with East Georgia

The Georgia Highlands College baseball team split a doubleheader at East Georgia State CC Saturday and, as a result, split the four game series with the Bobcats. The Chargers shutout East Georgia in Saturday’s opener 5-0, but the Bobcats won Game 2, 5-3.

Parker Orr hit a pair of solo home runs and Bryson Horne also homered in the opening game. Malik Spratling also drove in two runs with a hit and a sacrifice fly. Stevie Szucs (4.1 IP, 0R, 5BB, 3K) picked up the pitching victory for Georgia Highlands and Logan Ward (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 1BB, 2K) earned his eighth save of the year by closing out the seventh inning. Ryan Smithson (0.0 IP, 1BB), Trace Twardoski (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 2BB, 1K), and Skylar McPhee (0.2 IP, 0R, 0H, 2K) also worked middle relief in the victory.

In Game 2, East Georgia State led 2-1 after two innings and built a 5-1 lead through six frames. GHC scored twice in the top of the seventh on a McPhee home run but still came up a pair of runs short. Horne doubled and tripled in the second game and Spratling added the only other Chargers’ base hit.

Jacob Meyer (5.1 IP, 5R, 3ER, 7H, 6BB, 3K) started on the bump and suffered the pitching loss. Levi Ayers (0.2 IP, 0R, 0H, 1K) entered in the sixth inning and retired the only two batters he faced.

The split leaves East Georgia with a 32-14 season record. The Bobcats are in second place in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association with a 19-8 conference mark. Georgia Highlands (29-22, 15-13), third in the GCAA, wraps up the regular season schedule with two conference games this week. The Chargers host South Georgia State CC Tuesday at 5 p.m. at LakePoint and travel to Andrew College Saturday for a 3 p.m. start. GHC will then travel to the GCAA post-season tournament May 8-10 to be played at the former Darton State Community College campus which is now a campus of Albany State University.