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HOME OF THE LANDER UNIVERSITY BEARCATS #CLAWSUP
5
Columbus St. CSU 30-22
11
Winner Lander LANDER 41-13
Columbus St. CSU
30-22
5
Final
11
Lander LANDER
41-13
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Columbus St. CSU 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 5 10 1
Lander LANDER 5 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 X 11 12 1

W: Puccetti, Dominic (10-1) L: R. Suppa (4-6)

PBCCS G1
Hailey Franklin

Game Recap: Baseball | | Turner Kirby - Director of Athletic Communications

Lander Slugs Way to 11-5 Win in PBC Championship Series Opener

GREENWOOD, S.C. – The Lander baseball team slugged four home runs that accounted for eight of the team's 11 runs as the second-seeded Bearcats defeated fourth-seeded Columbus State, 11-5, in Game 1 of the Peach Belt Conference Championship Series on Thursday afternoon at Dolny Stadium.

Lander (41-13) now needs just one win from a potential two games on Friday to clinch its first Peach Belt Conference Tournament title since 2014.

Garrett Chun led the home run barrage with a pair of shots to right field—a first-inning grand slam and a sixth-inning two-run blast—doubling his season total in the process. Zach Cowart and Grant Sherrod added solo homers to power the Bearcat offense.

Dominic Puccetti earned his 10th win of the season—becoming the first Bearcat to reach double-digit victories since Will Jones went 10-3 in 2016. The junior left-hander tossed eight innings, tied for the longest outing by a Bearcat this season, and struck out seven while scattering 10 hits and five runs. Puccetti also reached a major milestone, becoming the first Bearcat since Jones to reach 100 strikeouts in a season. Jones finished the 2016 campaign with 106.

Lander jumped all over Columbus State starter Ryan Suppa in the first inning, as the first five batters reached base. Evan Wickeri opened the scoring with an RBI double, and after Sherrod was hit by a pitch and Connor Droze walked to load the bases, Chun blasted a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a grand slam to give the Bearcats a 5-0 lead.

Cowart extended the lead to 6-0 with a solo homer to left field leading off the second inning, chasing Suppa from the game. Droze added a sacrifice fly later in the frame to make it 7-0.

The Cougars (30-22) got on the board in the fourth with an RBI single, but Lander answered quickly with two more runs in the bottom half. Sherrod launched his 11th home run of the season to lead off the inning, and Mario Lopez Jr. added an RBI double to make it 9-1.

Columbus State capitalized on a Lander error to plate three runs in the fifth, trimming the lead to 9-4, but Chun's second homer of the game in the sixth reasserted control for the Bearcats.

The Cougars added a solo shot of their own in the eighth, but Joshua Sanchez closed things out with a 12-pitch ninth inning to seal the victory.

Lander out-hit Columbus State 13-10 and committed just one error. Chun finished 3-for-4 with six RBIs and two runs scored, while Sherrod reached base three times and scored twice. Cowart added two hits and drove in a pair.

Game 2 of the championship series is scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. at Dolny Stadium. If necessary, Game 3 will begin approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2. Tickets can be purchased online at landerbearcats.com/pbctix.
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Scoring Summary

Score By Innings
Play CSU LANDER
LANDER BOT 1st E. Wickeri doubled to left field, RBI; T. Nakao scored. 0 1
LANDER BOT 1st G. Chun homered to right field, 4 RBI; C. Droze scored; G. Sherrod scored; E. Wickeri scored. 0 5
LANDER BOT 2nd Z. Cowart homered to right center, RBI. 0 6
LANDER BOT 2nd C. Droze flied out to lf, sacrifice fly, RBI; E. Wickeri advanced to third; T. Nakao scored. 0 7
CSU TOP 4th M. Cruz singled through the left side, RBI; W. Wilmot advanced to second; C. Evans scored. 1 7
LANDER BOT 4th G. Sherrod homered to right field, RBI. 1 8
LANDER BOT 4th M. jr doubled to left center, RBI; C. Droze scored. 1 9
CSU TOP 5th V. Junco singled to left field, RBI; C. Evans advanced to second; I. King advanced to third; J. Chizek scored. 2 9
CSU TOP 5th W. Wilmot singled to first base, RBI; C. Ferguson advanced to second, advanced to third on a throwing error by 1b; V. Junco advanced to third, scored on the error, unearned; C. Evans scored. 4 9
LANDER BOT 6th G. Chun homered to right field, 2 RBI; C. Droze scored. 4 11
CSU TOP 8th B. Knox homered to left field, RBI. 5 11

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