Late homer lifts Georgia Southwestern past Albany State

ALBANY — On a breezy spring afternoon that felt just about perfect for baseball, the difference came down to a couple of balls that carried just enough — and one that didn’t.

Georgia Southwestern used a two-run home run in the seventh inning to edge Albany State, 4-3, on Tuesday at ASU West Campus, in a game that rarely offered much separation and never much margin for error.

“It was a great game,” Albany State coach Scot Hemmings said. “That was a game that could have gone either way, and it went their way.”

The wind was a quiet factor all afternoon, pushing and holding balls in ways that didn’t always seem predictable. It may have first shown up in the second inning, when the Hurricanes scored twice on a pair of fly balls that drifted just inside the right-field line and fell near ASU defenders.

That gave Georgia Southwestern a 2-0 lead.

Albany State didn’t take long to respond.

Ty Grover, who has been swinging the hottest bat in the Golden Rams’ lineup, turned on a pitch in the bottom of the second and sent it soaring over the left-field wall. It wasn’t a cheap one — it left the bat with authority and cut the deficit in half.

An inning later, the Golden Rams appeared to seize control.

With one out in the third, Luke Addison belted a ball to deep center that struck the top of the wall, just missing a home run and settling for a triple. Jaden Camp followed with a single to bring him home, and Aiden Payne added another hit to keep the inning moving.

Grover came up again and nearly delivered a second home run, this one to right field, but the ball held up just enough. It was still deep enough to score Camp on a sacrifice fly, giving Albany State a 3-2 lead.

“I saw a lot of good things today,” Hemmings said. “Ty Grover just missed a three-run homer that the wind held up, and Luke Addison lined out in the sixth that would have scored two runs.”

From there, the game settled into a rhythm.

Albany State pieced together solid work on the mound, with starter Armando Nunez continuing to show progress and the bullpen keeping the Hurricanes in check through the middle innings. Sebastian Griffeth, in particular, delivered a clean outing that Hemmings said was “the best I have seen him.”

The Golden Rams carried that one-run lead into the seventh.

It didn’t last.

After a leadoff walk and a stolen base put a runner in position, Georgia Southwestern’s Evan Wainman got a pitch he could handle and didn’t miss it, sending a two-run home run out of the yard to flip the game back in the Hurricanes’ favor.

Albany State had chances but couldn’t find one more swing.

The Golden Rams finished with eight hits, with Aiden Payne collecting two and Grover driving in a pair of runs. But like so many close games, this one turned on a handful of moments — a ball that stayed fair, another that stayed in the park, and one that didn’t.

“We held a very good offense to four runs,” Hemmings said. “I was proud of the way we pitched the ball today.”

The loss closes out Albany State’s non-conference home schedule and shifts the focus back to SIAC play, where the Golden Rams will travel to Columbia, South Carolina, this weekend for a series against Benedict.

“I’m looking forward to getting back onto the field at Benedict,” Hemmings said.