AUGUSTA, Ga.  – The Jaguars hosted their first Peach Belt Conference series of the season and won their third-consecutive game in 11 innings on senior Nate Crown's RBI-single up the middle to beat Lander 10-9 in a slugfest at Lake Olmstead Stadium Saturday night.

For the second time this week, the GRU Augusta Jaguars (8-10, 3-4 PBC) played an exciting 11-inning game. The conference-series opener against Lander University (10-13, 3-10 PBC) ended in a victory for the Jags led offensively by senior Kevin Dodson and juniors Hunter Boose and Cole Thompson who all went 3-5. It was all capped by Crown's bases loaded, base hit up the middle to score one for the 10-9 walk off.

Sophomore righty Tristan Jones got his third start of the season for the Jaguars. He pitched 5.1 innings, striking out two while giving up five hits for four runs (one earned) before being relieved by sophomore right-hander, Will Robertson in the sixth inning. Frank Warren took over in the ninth and closed out the game to get the win.

In the first at bat for GRU, CJ Reed (2-5) drew a walk and quickly moved to third on Clint Hardy's double down the third baseline, his fourth double of the season.  Nick Rau (1-5) brought his RBI total to 14 when he brought both home after squeezing a hit between third and shortstop.

The Jags put up two more in the second inning when Thompson and Dodson both hit doubles. The Lander Bearcats showed up in the third, posting three hits and a couple of walks to score four and tie the game.

Thompson came to the plate for the second time in the fourth inning and only saw one pitch - hitting a bomb over the left-field wall for his first homerun of the season to give the Jaguars the lead again.

Clint Hardy (2-4) reached base in the fifth and stole second. After reaching third, Hardy broke for home and slid under the bat of Hunter Boose (3-6) – who knocked him with an RBI-single to left. Lander threatened in the sixth inning.  A hit and a walk with one out brought Will Robertson to the mound for GRU. Robertson controlled the game and dealt two strikeouts to the Bearcats to escape the inning.

The Jags were tough defensively in the seventh.  Nick Rau put out the first two batters, and although the next walked, Cole Thompson made him pay for trying to steal second, catching his sixth runner of the season.  Offensively in the seventh, the bats stayed hot for GRU with Drew Taylor (1-6), Boose, Thompson, and Blue Sanderson (1-2) all reaching base on hits, while Rau and Connor Gilbert (1-4) reached on walks. The Jags crossed the plate three more times, going up 9-4.

The Bearcats brought in a run in the eighth inning, and four runs, including an in-park three RBI homerun, to tie the game at nine in the ninth. Hardy suffered a wrist injury at the centerfield wall on a controversial dropped catch off the homer. Neither team was able to do anything else until the 11th inning, when GRU had bases loaded with no outs. Crown clenched the game with his hit up the middle for the walk off single.

The series concludes tomorrow with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader at Lake Olmstead Stadium.

GAME TWO: LIVE STATS

GAME THREE: LIVE STATS

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