AMERICUS, GA. – The Lander baseball team rallied off back-to-back wins over Georgia Southwestern Sunday to take the series.

Lander moves to 18-17 overall and 14-14 in the PBC while GSW drops to 15-16 overall and 13-13 in the PBC.

This is the first time Lander has won-back-to-back series since taking ownership of the Claflin and Columbus State series to begin conference play back in February.

The Bearcats and Hurricanes saw a rubber match between their pitchers in the first game, with the two sides combining for 27 strikeouts.

Lander took game one on the back on its pitching and an impressive game from Justin Wager, who went 2-for-4 with a three-run home run and RBI single.

Wager got the Bearcats on the board in the first inning with that three-run blast to give Lander an early 3-0 lead.

Neither team was able to get its offense moving until Wager slapped a single to the shortstop allowing Evan Harold to score, making it 4-0 Lander in the third.

GSW finally got a run across in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single to right field.

The Bearcats responded with a solo shot to left center from Harold to give Lander a 5-1 lead that it would hold onto going into the ninth.

Marshall Thompson picked up his team-leading seventh win of the season after throwing seven innings while striking out 13 Hurricanes. Marshall's 13 strikeouts ties the Bearcats' program record for strikeouts in a single game set by Will Jones in 2016. Thompson tied this record once this season already, as he struck out 13 on Feb. 12 against Claflin. Praise Thorsen came in to pitch the remaining two innings and allowed no runs while striking out one.

The Bearcats struck first in game two, as Wager used a single to bring around Mike Fitschen to give Lander an early 1-0 advantage in the first inning. A triple the very next inning from Bo Richey brought around Bradley Davis to give Lander a 2-0 edge through the first two frames.

The fourth inning would see both teams plate a pair of runs. Davis hit a sac fly out to center field to allow Ward Betts to score while Fitschen would send a sac fly out to right field to score Roury Glanton to make it a 4-0 contest for the Bearcats.

Georgia Southwestern used a pair of RBI singles to plate two runs of its own to cut the Bearcats lead to two.

The fifth inning saw a stalemate between the two sides once again. Lander brought home a run on a sac fly from Betts to score Wager while an RBI single for the Hurricanes made it a 5-3 game.

Lander was able to gain some separation from GSW after Fitschen singled up the middle to bring around Glanton and Richey in the top of the eighth to make it 7-3 Lander.

Things got dicey for the Bearcats in the bottom of the ninth after three runs came around to score to make it a one-run game. Thorsen was brought back in to pitch 0.2 innings where he earned his fourth save of the season.

Jack Fox got the start for the Bearcats in game two and went five innings where he allowed three runs on six hits while striking out three. Davis Agle pitched two scoreless innings in relief, striking out five in the process.

Lander and Georgia Southwestern conclude the three-game series tomorrow at 1 pm. 

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