Hawks edge Piedmont in 13 innings to reach GSAC baseball tournament finals

LaGRANGE, Ga. – The Huntingdon baseball team has been living on the edge during the first two rounds of the Great South Athletic Conference tournament.

The Hawks rallied from a five-run deficit to win in the first round on Friday and followed up by rallying from a four-run deficit and winning in 13 innings on Saturday. Chad Baxley singled to score Seth Currie in the top of the 13th as the Hawks hung on to beat Piedmont 10-9 in the second round.

Huntingdon (29-11) returns to action in the GSAC tournament finals on Sunday at noon CST. The opponent will be determined later on Saturday. This is the third-straight year the Hawks have reached the tournament finals. Huntingdon last won the GSAC tournament in 2005.

"It was an exciting win and a draining win," Huntingdon baseball coach D.J. Conville said of the four-hour game. "I told the guys, we're going to treat this one like we did Friday's win. We're going to enjoy it until it's time to go to bed. As soon as it's lights' out, we're going to start thinking about the finals.

"We've got unfinished business and we want to try and come out and finish it on Sunday."

Much like Friday's game with Maryville, the Hawks fell behind early against Piedmont (26-16). The Lions led 5-1 entering the sixth inning. Huntingdon's Evan Agnew and Austin White both scored on an error in the seventh to make it a 5-3 game.

An Agnew triple and a Tyler Blackwell ground out scored two runs to make it a 6-5 game in the eighth before the Hawks tied the game 6-6 in the ninth on an RBI single by White.

"It was a crazy game," Conville said. "We reached a stretch where both teams got quiet. When we started to close the gap, they added to their lead. We started swinging the bats pretty well later in the game. Once we got to extra innings, we kept scoring to take the lead and they would answer. We were finally able to get the lead and keep it."

Both teams were scoreless in the 10th. A Blackwell single and a Currie single scored two runs in the top of the 11th, but Piedmont answered with two runs. In the top of the 12th, Trey Smith scored on an error. But the Lions answered with a run in the bottom of the inning.

In the 13th, tied 9-9, Baxley's single put the Hawks ahead for good.

"The guys are excited," Conville said. "We kept fighting and playing hard. As the game went on, we were able to make some position changes that paid off. You can't point to one or two players in a game like this. So many different guys played a factor in this win. This was a true team win."

Currie finished with four hits. Baxley and Smith each had three hits and Grant Brown, White and Agnew each had two hits. Agnew scored three times and Smith and White each scored twice.

Joseph Odom drove in Huntingdon's first run of the game.

Kevin Aaron (5-1) picked up the win in relief. The Hawks used five pitchers in the game. Starter John Rice went four innings and middle relievers Will Davis and Joseph Fincher combined to pitch three innings. Caleb Cofield pitched 4 1/3 innings and Aaron pitched the final 1 1/3 innings.