Atlanta, Ga. – Western Carolina baseball out-hit Georgia State 16-to-10 on Friday night in the nonconference series opener at the GSU Baseball Complex but was unable to take advantage of that edge in base hits and a trio of Georgia State errors as the Catamounts dropped the series opener 12-7.
Georgia State (11-3) scored multiple runs in four different innings, including two in the second, four in the fourth, three in the fifth, and three in the eighth to distance itself from WCU, overcoming an early one-run deficit. The Catamounts left a runner on base in all nine innings, stranding 13 on the paths in the loss.
Hayden Friese (4-for-6) and
Noah Quarless (4-for-5) both collected four hits with Friese posting four singles and a pair of RBIs while Quarless added one of the two WCU doubles to a trio of singles to collect his four hits.
Brayden Corn also doubled with a pair of RBIs in a 2-for-5 effort, with
Trent Turner (2-for-5, 2 RBI) and
Jaylen Jones (2-for-5) rounding out WCU's five multi-hit games.
Turner extended his team-long hitting streak to 10 games with a 12-game reached base safely streak, while Friese pushed his reached base safely streak to 23-straight games. Spees reached for the 14th consecutive game with
Brayden Corn (11 games) and
Cole Jones walking twice to extend his reaching base streak to 10 straight games.
Corn plated the game's first run in the top of the first inning with a single to centerfield that plated
Mason Holton, who was plunked by a pitch in his first at bat in returning to the Catamount lineup after missing the midweek win over Michigan State. However, WCU left two on in the opening frame with both in scoring position with consecutive strikeouts.
Georgia State got on the board in the home half of the third inning on consecutive one-out doubles and a sacrifice fly to lead 2-1 through three. The Panthers tacked on four in the fourth with an infield RBI single and a wild pitch plating the first two before the latter two came on home wild pitches for a 6-1 margin through four innings.
After Turner scored Friese on an infield single to third base to cut the deficit to four, 6-2, Georgia State used a two-out, three-run home run to stretch its lead out to seven, 9-2.
Western Carolina rallied with five runs between the sixth and seventh innings to cut it back to a two-run game, 9-7. Corn doubled to left center to plate
Elijah Smith, who opened the sixth with a walk, before Holton scored on a wild pitch. Corn crossed the plate on a Turner infield RBI for the three-run sixth inning. Friese delivered a two-run seventh with a two-out, two RBI single to left center field to close the gap to within a pair headed to the stretch.
The homestanding Panthers capped scoring in the bottom of the eighth inning with a bases-clearing, two-out triple to left field that made it a five-run game.
Jaylen Jones singled to open the ninth, advancing to third on a stolen base and throwing error. However, Georgia State closed the game with two strikeouts and a flyout to right to secure the series-opening victory.
Catamount starter
Dusty Revis (1-2) was saddled with nine runs on eight hits with three walks against six strikeouts over five innings in suffering the loss. Freshman
John Lobs struck out two with a pair of walks in an inning and a third, as relievers
Shane Huntsberger,
Owen Austin, and
Carter Burnette each collected a K.
Caleb White (3-1) earned the win for the Panthers, giving up five runs on 12 hits with seven strikeouts against a walk, with Jacob Crews earning his first save in tossing the final 2.2 innings of two-hit, scoreless relief with six Ks.
The nonconference series continues Saturday with a 2 p.m., start at the GSU Baseball Complex just outside of Atlanta.
Josh Ossiander is expected to get the start in game two of the set. The only coverage of the series is through GSU's StatBroadcast live stats with
a link available at CatamountSports.com.
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