ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The Georgia College Baseball team (17-16, 15-14 PBC) got a season-best pitching effort in game two of a doubleheader at Flagler College (9-20, 8-15 PBC) Sunday, splitting the two games but taking the Peach Belt Conference (PBC) series win. After dropping the first game 4-3, the Bobcats won game two 8-0.

Game one was a nail-biter that looked good for GC early. The Bobcats plated three runs in the top of the first to get up early, fueled by home runs from Cal Gentry (Perry, Georgia) and Cassius Young (Atlanta, Georgia).

The Saints got three of their own in the fifth to tie it, and the go-ahead run came on a Donovan Garcia RBI single in the seventh. The Bobcats left two runners on in the eighth and one more in the ninth, unable to get the clutch hit.

Reliever Brennan Crooms (Metter, Georgia) fell to 1-4 in the loss, working three innings.

Third baseman Noah Mendlinger (Alpharetta, Georgia) was 2-for-3 with a run and a double.

In game two, the Bobcats posted their first shutout of the season, the most recent being Feb. 8, 2020 against Augusta University.

Four pitchers combined for the shutout. Junior Bryson Smeltzer (Savannah, Georgia) got the start and the win (2-0) spinning the first five innings with four hits, three walks and five strikeouts. He turned it over to lefty Aidan McAllister (Suwanee, Georgia) for the first two outs of the sixth, and righty Ashton Sturgell (Evans, Georgia) closed the sixth and went two more with a pair of whiffs and just one hit. Senior Kyle King (Johns Creek, Georgia) got the final three outs, allowing a pair of hits and fanning one.

GC again plated three in the first, but this time it stuck. Mendlinger had an RBI single sandwiched by a pair of sac flies. Gentry had his second home run of the day in the second, a solo shot.

Gentry was 2-for-4 in game two, driving in one and scoring twice. Young had three hits, an RBI and a run, while Mendlinger went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. First baseman Brandon Bellflower (Milledgeville, Georgia) had a pair of hits with an RBI double and a run scored as well.

The win puts the Bobcats at 15-14 in conference play, good for seventh in the PBC standings. GC is three games behind fourth place in the loss column with four conference games left on the schedule. The top four teams qualify for the PBC Tournament, beginning May 7.

The Bobcats are back in action Tuesday, April 20 at 4 p.m., traveling to Francis Marion University.

The Georgia College Department of Athletics is proud to receive the 2020 NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. The two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner Cup and the former PBC Sportsmanship Institution of the Year, GC Athletics sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on Graduating Champions For Life. Sign up at @GCBobcats on all social media outlets for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.