ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Young Harris College came in and swept a Peach Belt Conference baseball doubleheader from No. 11 Flagler College, 6-5 and 1-0, Saturday (March 14) afternoon at Drysdale Field.
Young Harris improved to 10-12 overall and evened its record in the Peach Belt at 7-7. Flagler had its six-game win streak snapped and fell to 18-4 overall and 10-3 in conference play. The Saints also lost their first home games of the season, falling to 14-2. The same two teams meet tomorrow (March 15) at 1 p.m. at Drysdale Field.
"We got great starts from both starting pitchers - Justin Cooper and Donald Frew - today and played good defense behind them," said Young Harris head coach Travis Huffman. "We did just enough offensively to stay in both games with some timely hits late in the first game."
In the opener, Young Harris rallied to score three runs in the ninth inning to take a 6-5 lead. Trailing 5-3, Troy Kizer and Blake Suggs hit back-to-back singles to start the Mountain Lion rally. Spencer Thomas followed by hitting a ground ball to shortstop Nick Oberg who flipped the ball to second base for the force out. However, Saints second baseman Andrew Brodbeck tried to pick off Kizer at third and the ball was thrown off the bag and down the line. Kizer trotted home and Thomas advanced to second with two outs. Jimmy Pinakidis got a pinch hit infield single and Thomas came all the way around from second base to tie the game at 5-all. To cap the inning, Nick Sexton hit a double to left-center which scored Pinakidis all the way from first base.
Flagler got the game-tying runner on base in the bottom of the ninth, but he was stranded as Young Harris reliever William Leatherwood (2-2) got a pair of fly outs, sandwiched around a strikeout to end the game. He tossed the final inning and one-third to pick up the win.
Zach Wall, the PBC Player of the Week, went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs batted in. Brett Westmoreland went 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI while Suggs collected a pair of singles for the Mountain Lions.
Danny Brown (3-2) tossed 8.2 innings and surrendered nine hits and four earned runs. He fanned 10 batters.
The Saints pounded out 14 hits and was led by Kolin McMillen who went 3-for-5 with a double and scored a run. Brodbeck singled, doubled, scored a run and drove in another while Oberg collected a pair of singles, scored a run and drove in a run.
Flagler was induced into 13 ground outs and nine fly outs.
In game two, Young Harris' Donald Frew (1-4) outdueled Flagler's Mike O'Reilly (3-2) in a 1-0 game.
Frew tossed a five-hit shutout and struck out six batters. He got the Saints to ground out 10 times and fly out another 10 times. Frew retired the last 19 of 20 batters he faced, including the last 14 in a row. He only allowed two base runners to reach scoring position.
O'Reilly scattered five hits, allowed one run and struck out a season-high 10 batters.
The Mountain Lions jumped ahead early and that was all that they would need. Sexton led off the game with a single and took second when Zach Odom drew a walk. Westmoreland loaded the bases with a single to center. Wall grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, but Sexton scored what turned out to be the only run of the game.
Kizer collected two singles for Young Harris.
McMillen, Oberg, Todd Juliano, Skyler Fox and Frankie Sagarese all had one single for the Saints.
