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Lights-out pitching and timely hitting helped the Lee baseball team defeat visiting West Georgia 3-1 on Sunday afternoon at Olympic Field and claim the Gulf South Conference series two games to one.
GAME THREE
Pitchers Dustin Lawson and Kyle Briner combined to hurl three-hit baseball in a Sunday victory that went right down to the wire. Lawson toed the rubber for seven innings and allowed just two hits. He gave up an earned run, while striking out two and walking two West Georgia hitters. Briner came on in the eighth and surrendered one hit. He fanned a pair and did not walk a batter.
"I want to single out the performance of Dustin (Lawson)," pointed out coach Mark Brew. "He has not thrown well over the last two weeks and this was a huge bounce-back performance for him personally. I thought he did a great job." The Lee coach went on to say that Briner "was up to the task, finishing up out of the bullpen. Our pitching has been lights-out all season."
Brew also praised the work of his defense in a contest that could have gone either way with a miscue to two. The Flames played errorless baseball. "Defensively, we were once again awesome. We had several big double plays early (2) with (Josh) Silver and (Andres) Nelo."
The battle was scoreless through the first three innings. The Wolves broke the scoring ice in the fourth when Shaquille Jackson singled. He stole second and later scored on a single by Harrison Waller. That was all the offense the visitors could muster against the stingy pitching and superb defense.
The Flames tied the contest in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs and a 2-2 count on Cameron Brewster. The left-handed hitter tripled to left centerfield. He scored on a RBI fly-out by Derrick Pitts. "The big triple by Cameron helped us gain more confidence in our dugout," noted Brew.
The contest remained deadlocked until the bottom of the eighth inning. Brewster started the winning rally with a walk. Pitts followed with a solid single to right. West Georgia went to the bullpen for the first time and reliever Colton Duttweller walked Josh Tate to load the bases. The Wolves went to the bullpen again and called on Clint Beland.
Nelo became the man of the hour when he ripped a double to right centerfield that scored Zacary Hawkins and put the Flames up for good at 3-1.
"Nelo's two-strike, two-out double was huge," commented Brew. "but we had a lot of heroes in that inning that got us to that point. These are the types of dogfights we will be in all year in this conference. It is too good of a league to expect to sweep every series. Winning 2-of-3 is usually a big accomplishment. We just have to continue to improve as we move forward."
Lee out-hit West Georgia 9-3. "Though we only scored three runs, it was one of our better performances offensively this season," the coach acknowledged. We had a lot of hard outs and I thought we swung the bats extremely well on the day against tough pitching."
Siosi Poti was a perfect 3-of-3 at the dish and Hawkins chipped in with his seventh double of the year to go along with the triple by Brewster. Nelo's two-base hit was his sixth of the campaign.
A.Khadkhodian doubled for the Wolves' only other hit of the contest. Jamie Sexton was the starting and losing pitcher for West Georgia. He hurled 7 1/3 innings and surrendered eight of Lee's nine hits. He walked two and struck out two.
Tuesday's non-conference game with Campbellsville is slated for a 6 p.m. start and Wednesday's single game against the Tigers will begin at 3 p.m. Lee returns to conference action next Saturday and Sunday and will be challenged by West Alabama in a three-game Gulf South series at Olympic Field.
GAME TWO
Nikolay Uherek pitched a complete-game three-hitter, but was tagged with the loss after allowing the only run of the game in the fifth inning. Uherek (3-1) walked one and struck out five batters.
"Nikolay once again threw an awesome game and certainly deserved a better fate than he received," said Brew.
Cameron Brewster was 2-for-3 to lead the Lee offense. Derrick Pitts, Zacary Hawkins, Josh Tate and Seth Gower each tallied singles.
West Georgia's Galen Smith doubled to lead off the fifth, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored one batter later on a sacrifice fly.
The Flames outhit West Georgia 6-3, but left seven on base compared to one for the Wolves.
"Our offense disappeared and we weren't able to string together enough quality at bats to get anything going," Brew stated. "Give their pitcher credit, but we have to find a way to do a better job at the plate."
Cole Janousek (1-2) gave up six hits, one walk and fanned three in seven innings of work to earn the win.
West Georgia's left fielder Jake Shirley made a game-saving catch in the fifth inning. With bases loaded and two out, Pitts looked as though he was about to give Lee the lead, but Shirley came sprinting in, laid out to make the diving catch and preserved the lead.
GAME ONE
The Flames left seven runners on base in the first four innings before finally breaking through in the fifth inning where Lee pounded out seven hits and took advantage of two errors to post seven runs.
Pitts was 4-for-5 in the win. Hawkins and Josh Silver each added three hits, including one double each, to the 15-hit barrage.
Cameron Brewster was 2-for-4 with a two-run double.Tate, Gower and Siosi Poti recorded one single each. Poti drove in two runs.
"It was great to see our bats come alive against a quality pitcher," said Brew. "It was definitely one of our best offensive performances of the year, even though we left 15 on base. The middle of our offense was a big key to the game."
Jeremy Stawychny was the benefactor of the run explosion. Stawychny (3-2) gave up just one hit after the first inning where he allowed one run on three hits. The right-hander walked none and struck out eight in the complete-game victory.
"Stawychny did an excellent job limiting the damage in the first inning only allowing one run and then really settled down and threw great the rest of the game," added Brew.
Sumner McWhorter picked up one of West Georgia's hits with an RBI single in his first at bat.
Cody Skinner (2-3) was charged with the loss after allowing ten hits, six runs (three earned) and one walk over 4 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out one Lee batter.
