Chargers drop Appalachian District Championship series to No. 1 Walters State

Georgia Highlands College baseball was eliminated from the post-season Wednesday dropping the second straight game of the Chargers’ best-of-three Appalachian District Championship series at Walters State CC.

Walters State won the first game Tuesday 3-2 and clinched the series Wednesday afternoon with an 11-6 victory.

After the Senators took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning Wednesday, the Chargers narrowed the margin to 4-3 over the next three frames.

Zayd Brannigan hit a two-run homer in the second inning and Ethan Anderson hit a solo home run in the fourth.

Walters State extended the lead to 5-3 in the sixth and took control with a five-run seventh inning building a 10-3 lead.

Anderson hit another home run in the eighth for two more Chargers’ runs and delivered an RBI single in the ninth, but GHC came up five runs short.

Senators’ pitcher Matt Harrell struck out 13 and tossed a nine inning, complete-game for the Walters State pitching win.

Georgia Highlands utilized five different hurlers including Zachary Murray (0.2 IP, 4ER, 3H, 4BB), Hunter Goodwin (5.1 IP, 3ER, 6H, 1BB, 2K), Cason Rich (1 IP, 3ER, 1H, 2BB), Caleb Garner (1 IP, 1ER, 2H) and Zack Valentine (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 1K).

Anderson finished with three hits for the Chargers’ offense including a pair of home runs and four RBIs. Brannigan homered and doubled for a pair of RBIs. Max Kops contributed a double. David Smith, Ben Olson, Parker Poteet, and Caden Smith added one hit each.

No. 1-ranked Walters State (57-5) advances to the NJCAA World Series May 28-June 4 in Grand Junction, Colorado.

The Chargers season ends with a conference and region championship and a 44-11 record.