DAHLONEGA, Ga. | The University of North Georgia scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to break up a tied game as the Nighthawks claimed an 8-5 victory in the non-conference baseball series finale with Georgia College & State University Sunday (Feb. 23) afternoon at Bob Stein Field.

The Bobcats fell to 5-9 and will return to action Tuesday (Feb. 25) when they face No. 16 University of Mount Olive at 4 p.m. in Lexington, South Carolina. The Nighthawks improved to 9-5. The two teams will meet again the last weekend of the regular season in Milledgeville for the Peach Belt Conference series.

North Georgia jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after scoring a run in the first and adding four more an inning later.

GCSU got four runs back in the sixth to pull within a run at 5-4. Ben Hamacher had a run-scoring single to right field, before Matthew Mebane knocked in two more on another single to right. Evan Cowan closed out the scoring with an RBI ground out.

The Bobcats tied the game at 5 off a RBI single to center field from Gabe Weurth an inning later.

The Nighthawks broke up the tied game with three runs off GCSU reliever Christian Donaldson (1-4) in the bottom of the inning. Nicholas Stinson made it 6-5 on a single up the middle before Andrews Opata added two insurance runs on another single up the middle.

Matthew Heard (2-0) earned the win with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, striking out three.

The Bobcats had 10 hits - all singles - with two each from Weurth, Braeden Smith, Cowan and J.D. Coleman.
 

About GCSU Athletics 
Owning the top Academic Success Rate among all public colleges and universities in Division II for four consecutive academic years, the Georgia College Department of Athletics sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. GCSU Athletics has won five consecutive Presidents' Awards for Academic Excellence, and are two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup and four-time winners of the PBC Institution of the Year Sportsmanship Award. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' continued appearances in postseason competition as well as high-level academic success and community-service involvement. Bobcat Athletics embodies the mantra of "Graduating Champions for Life." Sign up at @GCSUBobcats on all social media outlets for up-to-the-minute reports or subscribe to the GSCU Athletics e-newsletter to receive the latest news, schedule updates and to interact with GCSU Athletics.  

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