VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State baseball team dropped its first game of the series, 7-4, to visiting Auburn Montgomery Friday evening. The Blazers fell to 23-11 on the season and 13-8 in the Gulf South Conference, while the Warhawks improved to 24-15 overall and 13-9 in GSC.

The home series will conclude Saturday April 16, with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The first game will start after the recognition of our six VSU baseball seniors.

The game Friday evening was scoreless until the third inning when the Warhawks scored two runs, but the Blazers answered back and added three runs to take the lead in the bottom of the inning.

Blazer graduate student Mike Cristopolous reached on a walk and scored prior to junior Ryan Romano blasting a two-run home run, scoring freshman Anthony Gutierrez. 

The game remained 3-2 until the eighth inning when the Warhawks added one run to tied the game 3-3.

The game went into extra innings as Auburn Montgomery added four runs to take a 7-3 lead. The Blazers plated one run in the bottom of the tenth, but it was all they could get. 

AUM outhit VSU 12-9 and four costly errors on the Blazers while the Warhawks had just one miscue. The Blazers tallied four RBI, three doubles, one home run, two stolen bases, and four free passes.

Leading the Blazer offense was redshirt senior Luke Ard going 3-5 with one double. Also recording hits for the Blazers was junior Bryson Gandy (1), Romano (1), senior EJ Doskow (1), sophomore Jacob Harper, Christopoulos (1), and Gutierrez (1).

Starting on the mound for the Valdosta State was senior Elijah Gill. Gill tossed eight innings and tallied eight strikeouts, allowed eight hits and three runs.  Junior Zach Henderson relieved Gill in the ninth, threw one inning, recording the loss for the Blazers (1-3).

For all information on Blazer baseball visit vstateblazers.com or follow Valdosta State Athletics on social media.