ALBANY – Once again, the Valdosta State Blazers overcame a late deficit and used eight Albany State errors to claim a 13-7 win against the Golden Rams on a chilly night in Albany, Ga.
Valdosta State took an early lead with an unearned run in the third, but ASU answered in the bottom of the fourth with a Jonathan Gala sacrifice fly and took their first lead of the game with an unearned run in the fifth.
With VSU trailing 2-1 after five, both teams put together a big sixth inning, beginning with a top half of the inning in which the Blazers sent nine to the plate and strung together three hits for five runs with the additional benefit of a costly ASU error.
Valdosta State’s 6-2 advantage was short lived, as the Golden Rams used four walks, a hit batsman, and a pair of base hits to tie the contest up at 6-6 in the sixth, then followed in the seventh with three consecutive hits by Quantico Dod, Nicolas Grig, and Gala to plate the go-ahead run.
As they have throughout the majority of their young season, the Blazers scored a slew of late inning runs to work the contest back in their favor. Clint Carr reached to start off a huge eighth inning after a misplaced grounder and promptly stole second base, before advancing to third and scoring on back to back passed balls. Two batters later, Michael Gouge started a two out rally with a single, and Marcus Sigmon, the reigning Gulf South Conference Player of the Week, followed with a double. The pair of hits were the only hits that the Blazers would need, as Albany State committed four errors throughout the remainder of the inning and allowed five unearned runs to score.
In the ninth, Carr added an insurance run with his first homer of the season and allowed the Blazers to lock up the 13-7 victory which also represented Troy Terzi’s first win of the year. For the Golden Rams, Brian Winn suffered the loss after coming in during the sixth and getting roughed up by the Blazer offense in the eighth.
The win represented the Blazers second straight and improved the Blazers to 5-2 on the year. Meanwhile, ASU fell to 0-5.
The Blazers now turn their attention to a weekend tournament at Florida Tech in Melbourne, Fla., where their next game will take place against No. 5 Catawba at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
