GREENWOOD – Tied 9-9 in the bottom of the ninth, Bradley Davis slapped a hard-hit ball through the left side of the infield to bring home Matthew Burgess and give Lander a 10-9 victory over Augusta on Friday evening.
Lander moves to 16-16 overall and 6-7 in the PBC while Augusta drops to 10-19 overall and 3-10 in the PBC.
Connor Droze led the Bearcats in hits and RBI with three each. Droze had a double and home run among his three hits. Landon Dupert, Mason Streater, Burgess and Ross McCurley all had multi-hit nights along with Droze.
Neither side was able to score in the first two innings.
The third would see both teams plate a single run. Augusta scored the game's first run on an RBI single back up the middle to take a temporary 1-0 lead. The Bearcats would respond with a single to left field from Burgess to begin the bottom of the third. Runners would be on the corners after a failed pickoff attempt allowed Burgess to move a bag and McCurley singled to the shortstop. Dupert would sail a pitch out to center field that would be caught but allowed Burgess to score to tie the contest 1-1.
The Bearcats would score at least one run from the third inning through the sixth.
Lander would score two more in the fifth, as a triple from Gary Garrett scored Tyler Prell from first and a ground out hit by Burgess scored Garrett to push Lander in front 3-1. The Bearcats found two more runs in the fifth, with Streater scoring Dupert from third on a sac fly to center field and a fielder choice hit by Prell scored Droze to give Lander a 5-1 edge.
Augusta's offense woke up in the sixth with a five-run inning to retake the lead. A double helped bring a pair of runs early in the inning before a three-run blast to right-center gave Augusta a 6-5 lead.
Lander wouldn't go down quietly, as the Blue and Gold rallied for four innings in the bottom of the sixth. Droze bashed a moon shot to center field to score three runs while a single from Ethan Wilder scored a run to put Lander back in front.
Augusta would go straight back to work in the top of the seventh, with three runs coming around to tie the game at 9-9.
After shutting down the Jaguars in the eighth and ninth innings, Lander slowly started building momentum in the bottom of the ninth. Burgess would single to center field with a single out and then stole second to get into scoring position. After Dupert was intentionally walked, Lander brought Davis up to pinch-hit. Getting a pitch to hit, the veteran catcher made Augusta pay with an RBI single through the left side to score Burgess and close the game with Lander winning 10-9.
Bennett Nance got the start but only went 1.2 innings while striking out two. Bryce Jackson picked up his first win of the season after pitching the last two innings. Jackson allowed no hits or runs while striking out four Jaguars. Tyler Bowen, Anson Merrick, Michael Nastro, Braeden Burton and Drew Luckey all saw relief appearances as well.
Lander and Augusta conclude the series with a doubleheader on April 2 with the first game set for 2 pm.
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