Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

HARDEEVILLE, S.C. - The Georgia Gwinnett softball team was unable to hold onto a lead in both games on Tuesday as the Grizzlies dropped 8-7 and 6-3 decisions to host USC Beaufort at Richard Gray Softball Complex.

With the losses, GGC fell to 20-12 on the season, and USCB, which moved up No. 22 in Tuesday evening's NAIA Top 25 poll release, improved to 20-8. The Sand Sharks have now won 10 consecutive games, and snapped a three-game losing streak to the Grizzlies this season.

The hosts, which were shutout in two of the previous three meetings with GGC, opened the game emphatically as Haley Brown led off with a home run and Sam Boland singled home two more to give USCB a quick 3-0 advantage.

The Green and Gray struck back as Alyssa Hathcoat tripled home a pair and then scored on a Cassidy Littlefield single ensuing half-inning. Haley Thompson and Chelsi Palazzo brought two more home in the third as GGC grabbed the lead at 5-3.

Littlefield went on to end the game 3-for-3 with two RBI, and Hathcoat was 2-for-3 with a pair of scores.

GGC would add a run apiece in the fourth and sixth before USCB got back on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a score to make it 7-4. However, it would all come apart for the Grizzlies in the seventh as four hits and an error resulted in four runs for the Sand Sharks, concluding with an Amanda Brown walk-off single.

Ashley Beyke was dealt the loss after allowing five runs (three earned) in 6.1 innings of work to drop to 7-4 on the year. Kayla Byrom, who came on in relief to start the seventh inning, gave up three on a pair of hits without recording an out.

In the day's second contest, it was GGC that opened up the scoring as a second-inning Hathcoat fielder's choice and Sand Shark miscue brought home the game's first score. Littlefield followed up moments later with a two-run blast to make it 3-0.

Littlefield, who ended the game 2-for-3, now has seven home runs on the season, tying her school-record total from a year ago.

After an error and a Whitley Martin single slimmed the USCB deficit to one in the bottom half of the second, the Sand Sharks grabbed the lead with a Boland two-run double in the fifth and further added to it in the sixth with a two-run Taylor Triplett single.

Katie Lange, who tossed a one-hitter in her previous meeting with USCB earlier this season, was pegged with the loss. The junior out of Altamont, Ill., dropped to 5-5 on the year after allowing six runs (four earned) on nine hits. She struck out four.

GGC will return to action on Friday with a doubleheader vs. Montreat at Grizzly Softball Complex, and home action will continue into the weekend as Talladega will pay a visit to Lawrenceville on Saturday.

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