Lander LANDER 35-13

Ga. Southwestern GSW 29-19

Lander LANDER

35-13

Final

Apr. 25, 2025

Ga. Southwestern GSW

29-19

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Lander LANDER	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	3	7	0
Ga. Southwestern GSW	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	8	0

W: Puccetti, Dominic (9-1) L: A. Geiger (7-4) S: Bowen, Tyler (3)

Summary
Box Score

Nick Winegard

Game Recap: Baseball | 4/26/2025 12:16:00 AM | Turner Kirby - Director of Athletic Communications

Lander Tops GSW 3-2, Clinches Hosting Rights for PBC Tournament First Round

AMERICUS, Ga. – The Lander baseball team held off multiple rallies by Georgia Southwestern to earn a 3-2 victory at Hurricane Stadium on Friday evening, clinching a top-two seed and hosting rights for the opening weekend of the Peach Belt Conference Baseball Championship.

With the win, the Bearcats (35-13, 21-4 PBC) secured hosting rights for one of the two four-team, double-elimination brackets that make up the first round of the PBC Tournament next weekend. The winner of each bracket will advance to the championship series, hosted by the highest remaining seed the following weekend.

Lander remains in contention for at least a share of the PBC regular-season title but does not control its own destiny. The Bearcats sit one game back of North Georgia with two games remaining. A pair of Lander wins combined with two Georgia College victories over the Nighthawks would give the Bearcats their second straight outright PBC regular-season title. One Georgia College win would see Lander share the title with the Nighthawks, with North Georgia getting the number one seed by virtue of their series win over Lander earlier this season.

Dominic Puccetti (9-2) earned the win with 6.1 shutout innings, scattering six hits and striking out five. He worked out of trouble in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, stranding multiple runners in each frame, including the bases loaded in the sixth.

Kurt Rogers provided 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, and Tyler Bowen closed the door with 1.1 innings of his own, allowing one run while striking out two to earn his third save of the season.

The Bearcats took a 2-0 lead behind RBI doubles from Mario Lopez Jr. in the fourth and Garrett Chun in the sixth. Despite multiple scoring threats from the Hurricanes (29-19, 16-9 PBC), Lander's pitching and defense held firm.

Georgia Southwestern broke through in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out RBI double that cut the lead to 2-1 and put the tying run in scoring position. Bowen entered and struck out the next batter to end the threat.

In the top of the ninth, Will McClellan added a crucial insurance run with a solo home run to left—his seventh of the season—to make it 3-1.

The Hurricanes mounted one final push in the bottom of the ninth, drawing two walks and advancing the tying run to second on a wild pitch. A groundout plated a run, but Bowen induced a flyout to left field to end the game and secure the win.

The two teams continue their series Saturday at 2 p.m. in Americus.

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Score By Innings
		LANDER	GSW
*TOP 4th*	Lopez, Jr doubled down the lf line, RBI; G. Sherrod scored.	1	0
*TOP 6th*	G. Chun doubled to right center, RBI; G. Sherrod scored.	2	0
*BOT 8th*	Dan. Hernand doubled to right center, RBI; G. Davis scored.	2	1
*TOP 9th*	W. McClellan homered to left field, RBI.	3	1
*BOT 9th*	P. Hegeman grounded out to ss, RBI; B. Deerman advanced to third; C. Lee scored.	3	2