AMERICUS - Georgia Southwestern pitchers tallied 11 strikeouts on Thursday night in a 7-4 non-conference baseball victory over Albany State at Hurricane Stadium.
GSW starting pitcher Justin Lott accounted for seven strikeouts over six innings before making way for the relief staff.
With the win, GSW improves to 4-7 this spring. Albany State drops to 1-11. The Hurricanes have controlled the series as of late, winning 10 of the last 13 contests.
ASU took an early 1-0 lead on Thursday with a run in the second inning.
The Hurricanes quickly answered in the bottom half of the frame when John Duran knocked in Corey Benson from second with a single to center.
GSW pulled ahead in the third after Jarrod Taylor roped a two-out home run around the left-field foul pole. Chase Young drove in the second run of the inning with a RBI single to left that scored Stephen Eldridge, who reached on an ASU error.
The Hurricanes added two more runs in the sixth when Josh Sanders plated Blane Parker with a sacrifice fly and Taylor struck again, this time with a RBI single, to score Randall Sheffield.
Albany State scored a run in the seventh to make the score 5-2.
In the eighth inning, GSW put together four hits and two walks to add a pair of insurance runs and open a 7-2 advantage.
The Golden Rams utilized a Ryan Latner two-out, two-run double in the ninth to cut the margin to three, but Dylan Folds secured the win for GSW with a game-ending strikeout.
Lott (1-0) picked up his first win of the season behind six innings of one-run ball. Lott held ASU to three hits while walking five and striking out seven. Drew Cataldo, Ryan Mosley and Folds tossed an inning apiece to close out the game.
ASU starter Clifford Peterson went 5 2/3 innings and allowed nine hits and five runs - three earned - while walking three and striking out four to take the loss.
Behind 13 hits and nine walks, the Hurricanes left the bases loaded in the third, seventh and eighth innings and stranded a total of 15 men on base. Taylor led GSW hitters with his 3-for-5 performance. He drove in two and scored two. Parker and Sanders added two hits apiece.
Jacob Campbell collected two hits for ASU.
Southwestern returns to the diamond on Saturday to host Armstrong at 3 p.m.
