AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern baseball season came to a quiet close on Sunday afternoon as the Hurricanes suffered a 6-2 setback to Carson-Newman.
GSW had its three-game winning streak snapped and finished the 2012 campaign with a 13-34 record. Carson-Newman managed to end the year above .500 with a 28-26 mark.
The visiting Eagles jumped to 2-0 lead in the first inning behind an RBI double from Cody Fox and an Evan Jurjevic RBI single.
Michel Coffey led off the home half of the first with a double for GSW and scored two batters later on a Randall Sheffield ground out to second.
After holding C-N scoreless in the second, GSW tied the ballgame in the bottom half of the frame with a Jarrod Taylor RBI single to left field that scored Andrew Archer.
The momentum quickly shifted back to the Eagles in the top of the third when a leadoff single by Phillip Duncan was followed by three GSW errors giving C-N a 4-2 lead. A Duncan single and two more errors in the fourth allowed C-N to stretch the margin to 6-2.
Southwestern collected three hits in the first two innings on Sunday, but could manage only three more the rest of the way. Sheffield legged out a single in the eighth to end the season with a 12-game hitting streak.
The Hurricanes did not have a batter finish with multiple hits in the contest.
Duncan went 3-for-4 in the leadoff slot for C-N to account for most of the Eagles offense. He added a walk and scored three runs.
GSW starter Trent Franzago was denied his first win of the season after throwing 6 1/3 innings and surrendering six runs - three earned - in his final collegiate game. Franzago gave up five hits, walked two and struck out six. Fellow seniors Cameron Blinn and Gray Carden kept C-N scoreless the rest of the way with each pitching 1 1/3 innings.
C-N starter Chris Armstrong saw the most action of the seven Eagle pitchers to enter the finale. Armstrong went three innings, allowed both runs, gave up three hits, walked one and struck out one. Ryan Fillers closed things out with two innings of relief.
Despite early-season struggles, Southwestern ended the 2012 campaign winning four of its last seven games and the pitching staff had some NCAA-era season-bests, including: most strikeouts per nine innings (6.96), most strikeouts looking (113) and fewest home runs allowed (12).
