No. 5 Wingate downs No. 30 Young Harris 9-4 in opening round of Southeast Regional
By: Michael MacEachern
Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Communications
No. 5-ranked Wingate University jumped out to a 6-1 lead en route to a 9-4 baseball victory over No. 30 Young Harris College in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional No. 2 Thursday (May 19) afternoon at Ron Christopher Stadium/Plyler Field.
The No. 2-seeded Bulldogs improved to 47-8 overall and they advance to Friday's (May 20) winner's bracket game at 7 p.m. against No. 10 Columbus State University. The Mountain Lions, who are seeded seventh in the regional, fell to 38-18 and will advance to Friday's (May 20) 3 p.m. elimination game against Belmont Abbey College.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE:
Seaver King's grand slam to straight away center field gave the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Young Harris got a run back in the top of the second on a Mark Castle single to left-center field.
Wingate pushed its lead to 8-1 before the Mountain Lions scored three runs in the top of the seventh. Castle drove in his second run of the game with an infield single and Aaron Copeland pushed across two more on a single up the middle.
Castle accounted for two of the six hits by the Mountain Lions. Copeland and Jackson Jones each had a single, while Rome Wallace and Jackson Jones each smacked a double.
Nate Lamb (6-5) took the loss for the Mountain Lions, while Brody McCullough (9-1) claimed the Wingate win.
This was the first-ever meeting between the two teams on the baseball diamond.