The top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett baseball team fell in the first of two championship games of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round's Lawrenceville Bracket as the Blue Raiders of Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) defeated the Grizzlies 9-3 to force an if necessary championship game on Friday morning in the double-elimination format tournament.
The Blue Raiders, who are receiving votes nationally, reached the first championship game with a 15-3 victory over No. 19 Indiana Southeast earlier Thursday morning in the loser's bracket final.
The loss snaps Georgia Gwinnett's 15 game winning streak as the Grizzlies now hold a 57-5 record on the season. The Grizzlies have only loss in back-to-back games once this season (April 12-No. 4 Faulkner, 11-3 and April 13-No. 8 Auburn-Montgomery, 2-1).
Lindsey Wilson (41-23) did the bulk of its damage in the second inning as the Blue Raiders scored seven runs on eight hits. Designated hitter Austin Atwell led the second inning off with a solo home run over the left field fence for the 1-0 LWC lead. His blast to left was his third home run of the day as he hit two against IU Southeast in the previous contest.
A sacrifice fly by Ryan Harper coupled with an RBI-double by Victory Nazario pushed LWC's advantage to 3-0. Nazario would later make it 4-0, scoring on a wild pitch to the backstop by GGC's starting pitcher Nikolay Uherek. With runners on second and third, Aaron Ashton ripped a two-run single to the right-center field gap to give the Blue Raiders the 6-0 advantage, ending Uherek's day. Lindsey Wilson scored its seventh and final run of the inning with an RBI-single by Carlos Ortiz.
In the top of the third, Lindsey Wilson increased its lead to 8-0 with an RBI-single to center by Alec Salcedo.
Facing its final nine outs of the game, Georgia Gwinnett rallied in the bottom of the seventh to score three runs, cutting its deficit to 8-3. An RBI-single to left by second baseman Jereid Woods coupled with an RBI-double by center fielder Josh Merrigan narrowed the gap to 8-2 while a RBI-ground out by first baseman Zac Rinehart cut the LWC advantage to 8-3.
LWC tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth before shutting the Grizzlies down in the bottom of the inning to pick up the 9-3 victory, forcing an if necessary championship game.
The Lawrenceville Bracket championship game of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Grizzly Baseball Complex. The Grizzly Digital Network will provide live video coverage of the championship game beginning at 8:45 a.m. and can be accessed at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ggc.
For all the latest on Grizzly Athletics, including news, scores and features, visit GrizzlyAthletics.com. Check out all the latest Grizzly Baseball content and join the conversation by using @GGC_Baseball on Twitter.
