YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. | Young Harris College swept two games from the University of South Carolina-Aiken Sunday (May 7) afternoon at Zell B. Miller Field to win the Young Harris bracket of the Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament presented by College Ave Student Loans.
The Mountain Lions scored three runs in the eighth inning to rally for a 5-4 win in the opener, before Young Harris clubbed five home runs to down the Pacers 12-4 in the nightcap.
The No. 2 seeded Mountain Lions improved to 38-15 overall and will advance to to next weekend's PBC Tournament Championship Series against top seed Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia. The winner of the best-of-3 series will earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II tournament. The No. 3 seeded Pacers end their season at 32-22.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE:
GAME 1
- USC Aiken scored twice in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead, but Young Harris scored twice in the fifth to tie the game at 2. Drew Bray drove in the first run with an RBI triple to left-center field. Bray later scored on Jace Wilson's single to center.
- The Pacers took a 4-2 lead with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
- YHC responded with three unearned runs in the eighth as they took advantage of a USCA fielding error to start the rally.
- Rome Wallace tied the game at 4 with a two-run single to right-center field and the Mountain Lions took the lead on a Bray single to left field.
- Nate Lamb (8-1), which set the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, tossed YHC's second complete game of the series. He allowed 10 hits, but struck out seven.
- YHC posted nine hits, with Marco Colina, Wallace and Bray collecting two hits apiece.
GAME 2
- The five home runs by the Mountain Lions were one off the NCAA program record of six set against Columbus State University in the 2021 season.
- USCA took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, but the Mountain Lions took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on Jeremy Begora's home run that bounced off the top of the right field fence and over for his team-leading 14th long ball.
- The Pacers reclaimed the lead for the final time at 3-2 as USC Aiken scored twice in the fourth.
- YHC took the lead 4-3 as James Basham and Ethan Underwood started the fifth with back-to-back jacks. Basham's homer to left was his second of the season, while Underwood's blast went to left-center.
- The Mountain Lions broke open the game with a four-run sixth to take a 8-3 lead. Basham added an RBI single before Underwood smacked a three-run blast to left-center field for his sixth homer of 2023.Â
- Wallace added a home run to center field in the seventh. It was his sixth of the campaign.
- The Mountain Lions closed out the scoring with three runs in the eighth. Jarrett Ford had an RBI double, while Steven Spell added a two-run double to right-center field.
- Brady Caloway (5-2) earned the win with 1.2 scoreless innings of relief, while Ryan Heishman earned his first save with three innings of relief, allowing just one run and struck out three.
- Nine of the 14 hits by the Mountain Lions went for extra bases. Underwood, Wallace and Basham led the way with three hits each, while Ford and Begora had two apiece.
