Chargers head into conference tourney at LakePoint as GCAA's third seed

The Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association baseball tournament begins Monday at LakePoint in Emerson where the Georgia Highlands Chargers will be the No. 3-seed after splitting their final two regular season games earlier this week.

This past Tuesday afternoon, the Chargers knocked off top-seed South Georgia State 6-5 before falling to bottom-seed Andrew College Thursday evening, 22-12.

In the win over South Georgia, pitcher Oliver Wood (7 IP, 5R, 4ER, 9H, 0BB, 4K) tossed seven solid innings to keep the Chargers close with the visiting Hawks but it was Skyler Thellman who became the pitcher of record by striking out the side in the eighth inning. Chandler Anderson (1 IP, 2K) worked a scoreless ninth inning to earn a save.

Ryan Wideman helped power the GHC offense with two doubles, a home run, and three RBIs. Austin Slate followed with two hits and one RBI. Adam Love and Bryson Stripling both hit solo home runs and Mitchell Walker added one hit in the win.

In Thursday’s loss at Andrew College, Georgia Highlands fell behind early and was not able to recover.

The host Tigers scored nine runs in the first two frames and added runs in every remaining inning except the third to end the contest in seven innings.

Love led the Chargers’ offense with four hits including a home run and four RBIs. Jay Murdock had three hits including a homer and two RBIs. Hudson Sapp (two RBIs) and Slate (double, two RBIs). Walker contributed a triple and one RBI. Wideman added a double and Connor Faulker pitched in one RBI with a sacrifice fly.

The Chargers utilized eight different pitchers in the loss including Trey Baker (0.2 IP, 6R, 2ER, 3H, 2BB), Declan Dun (1.1 IP, 3ER, 3H, 2BB, 2K), Trip DoVale (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 1BB, 2K), Jeremy Gay (0.1 IP, 3ER, 2H, 1BB), Cole Turner (0.2 IP, 3ER, 4H, 2BB, 1K), Cason Rich (0.1 IP, 1ER, 0H, 1K), Zach Valentine (1 IP, 4R, 1ER, 3H, 2BB, 2K), and Kyle Stephenson (1.1 IP, 2R, 1ER, 2H, 1BB, 1K).

The win for Andrew College (28-21, 9-16) was their third straight heading into the conference tournament.

Georgia Highlands (33-20, 13-12) plays Andrew College in the first round of the double-elimination tournament Monday at 3 p.m. The winner advances to face ABAC (28-28, 14-11) on Tuesday while the loser will fall to the elimination bracket.

South Georgia State (36-19, 19-6) is the top seed and will play Tuesday against the Gordon State (23-30, 10-15) / East Georgia State (24-27, 10-15) winner from Monday’s first round.

The GCAA Championship Tournament at LakePoint continues through next Thursday.