Feb. 16, 2013

The Georgia Gwinnett baseball team used a strong pitching performance from starter Bradley West to edge past Bryan College, 3-2, on Saturday in Dayton, Tenn., clinching the series victory over the Lions.

A junior left-hander from Athens, West (2-0) struck out seven batters over 7.0 innings while yielding just one unearned run to pick up the win.

Freshmen Sheldon Connor and Austin Smith pitched the final two innings, with Smith earning his first save on the year.

The Grizzlies are now 5-1 on the season and dropped the Lions, who were voted just outside the NAIA Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll, to 6-3.

“We got better each game against a very, very good team,” said Grizzles head coach Brad Stromdahl. “Bradley put us in a great position to win today and really, we just played hard. In a back-and-forth game, every play mattered and we came out victorious.”

Georgia Gwinnett was led at the plate by junior outfielder Phillip Bates, who had two hits and scored once.

The Grizzlies pushed across two runs in the fourth inning as Christian Van Camp and Bates came in to score on a pair of Lions throwing errors after reaching on hits.

An insurance run in the seventh inning proved to be the game-winner. Eli Green led off with a walk and his pinch runner, Billy Best, came in to score three batters later on Jereid Woods’ RBI single.

After Bryan pushed across single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, Smith came on and twirled a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the Grizzlies’ win.

Despite just one nine-inning contest so far this year, GGC has scored 57 runs in six games.

The team returns to play its first in-state action on Tuesday with a 3 p.m. contest at Point University.