Columbus State stays alive in Peach Belt tournament with win over Augusta
Albert Harless came up big for the No. 5 Columbus State baseball team on Friday morning in the Peach Belt Conference tournament.
The right-hander pitched a complete game to lead CSU to a 3-2 win over Augusta at Sparrow Field. He allowed 10 hits but did not walk a batter. Harless (7-2) blanked the Jaguars for the final six innings.
“That is one of the most clutch performances I’ve seen in quite a while,” CSU coach Greg Appleton. “In a must win game, Albert gave us everything he had, and he turned in one of our better pitched games of the year.”
The game was a must-win for the top-seeded Cougars, who lost their PBC tournament opener to North Georgia on Wednesday.
The PBC went to a pool-play format for the tournament this season. There are four teams in each pool and each team will play the other three. The two pool winners will meet Sunday for the championship.
North Georgia beat Augusta on Friday to finish pool at 2-1. CSU is 1-1 and Georgia College is 2-0. CSU and Georgia College play at 11 a.m. Saturday.
If Georgia College wins, it wins the pool with a 3-0 record. If CSU wins, it would tie Georgia College and North Georgia at 2-1. Since all three teams would have a 1-1 record against the other two, it would go to a second tiebreaker.
What that tiebreaker is has not been made clear. A PBC spokesman said the tiebreaker was the same as what the ACC used, but he said the league would only say what it is if they needed to use it.
The ACC uses regular-season winning percentage in conference games. If that is the tiebreaker used, then CSU would win the three-team tiebreaker as well.
Augusta jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Clint Hardy and Hunter Boose hit back-to-back doubles.
CSU tied the game in the second. Blake Edwards and Matt Nettles reached on singles. Lake Hart hit a sacrifice fly.
Jim Wagner hit a homer in the third to give the Jaguars a 2-1 lead.
CSU took the lead in the fifth. Justin Evans walked and Tyler Fichter reached on a bunt single. Jackson Oliver singled to right to drive in Evans. On the play, Fichter scored on a throwing error by the right-fielder.
Ryan Ihle, Nettles and Fichter all had two hits for the Cougars.
Peach Belt tournament
The format for the Peach Belt Conference tournament is pool play. The eight teams are broken into two pools. Each team will play the other three teams in its pool. The winners of the pools will play in the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Pool A has Columbus State, Georgia College, Augusta and North Georgia. Pool B has Lander, USC Aiken, Montevallo and Flagler.
Wednesday’s Games
- North Georgia 7, Columbus State 6
- Lander 13, Flagler 3
- Georgia College 9, Augusta 4
Thursday’s Games
- Montevallo 15, USC Aiken 9
- Georgia College 4, North Georgia 2
Friday’s Games
- Columbus State 3, Augusta 2
- Lander 6, Montevallo 5
- North Georgia 3, Augusta 1
- 7:30 p.m. — Flagler vs. USC Aiken
Saturday’s Games
- 11 a.m. — Columbus State vs. Georgia College
- 3 p.m. — Flagler vs. Montevallo
- 7 p.m. — USC Aiken vs. Lander
This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Columbus State stays alive in Peach Belt tournament with win over Augusta."