COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Down to its final two outs Tuesday afternoon in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament, Augusta State came alive with three ninth-inning runs to avoid elimination and rally past North Georgia 5-3 at historic Golden Park.
With the victory, the Jaguars (24-29) avoided elimination and set up a rematch Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., with North Georgia. The Saints (34-19), who dropped their first game of the tournament with the loss, will now go head-to-head with ASU on Wednesday for the fifth time this season.
With North Georgia just two outs away from advancing to the title game, the Jaguars came alive at the plate. Freshman pinch hitter Colby Adeeb slapped a one-out double to right off the outfield brick wall, narrowly missing a home run. Junior leftfielder Caleb Saggus reach on an infield single to put runners on the corners before sophomore shortstop Jake Sutton delivered a sacrifice fly to plate pinch runner Loren Collins with the game-tying run.
ASU was far from finished however, as senior first baseman Tristan Toorie ripped a double to the gap in left-center and later came around to score on a Casey Hanrahan RBI-double to cap the three-run ninth inning.
In the early going, the Jags jumped on top in the third inning when freshman second baseman Mike Smith led off and walked, and later came around to score on a Toorie sac fly to give ASU a 1-0 edge.
The ASU lead handed the Saints their first deficit of the tournament and that deficit doubled in the fifth inning on a single to the shortstop by Sutton to send Saggus racing home to make it 2-0.
North Georgia finally broke through in the sixth with a pair runs to knot the score and put the Saints right back into the game. Jordan Erisman led off the frame and doubled off the wall in left-center, and Derek Hooper followed with a seeing-eye single through the right side to cut the ASU in half and make it 2-1.
The Saints then knotted the score when Jaguar senior lefthander Joah Evans attempted to pick off Hooper at first and threw it down the first base line, allowing Hooper to race all the way around to the plate and even the score at 2-2.
North Georgia then pulled ahead in the seventh after a Chad Sage lead-off single through the left side. Following a sacrifice bunt by Brad Hall, Dustin Carpenter stepped up to the dish and lined a single up the middle to score Sage and put the Saints in front, 3-2.
The one-run lead would not be enough however, as the Jaguars rallied to shock North Georgia in the ninth and force the extra game.
Evans (3-6) was the winner for the Jaguars, tossing all 9.0 innings and giving up nine hits, but just three runs, including just two earned. With 114 pitches, the senior tallied two strikeouts and walked one.
Saints' closer Jacob Rickett (6-3) suffered the loss, giving up all three runs in the ninth inning and not striking out a batter.
