Piedmont edges Panthers 4-2
April 17, 2009

DEMOREST, Ga. – Piedmont College edged LaGrange College 4-2 in a GSAC game Friday night at Loudermilk Field. The Panthers fell to 20-15 overall and 2-5 in conference play, while the Lions upped their record to 18-16 overall and 4-3 in the GSAC.

Piedmont's Spencer Shelton (5-2) and the Panthers' Trevor Tullock (3-3) locked up in a pitcher's duel. Both pitchers threw complete games and allowed six hits. Tullock allowed only one earned run, walked five and struck out a career-high 10. Shelton allowed an earned run, walked two and struck out eight.

The Panthers opened the scoring in the fourth inning. Korey Ison hit his fourth home run of the season to put the Panthers up 1-0. Jordan Martinec followed with a double, but Shelton escaped further trouble by retiring the next two batters.

The Lions did all of their scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning. Aided by two errors, the Lions needed only three hits in scoring their four runs. Jared Moon and Zac Stein had RBI singles in the inning.

The Panthers closed the gap in the seventh inning. Martinec led off the inning with a single and took second when the ball was misplayed in the outfield. He moved over to third on a sacrifice by Mike Sanders and scored on David Miller's sacrifice to make it 4-2.

In the eighth inning, Ben Hudson got a base hit with two outs, but was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double. Ison led off the ninth inning with a single. Amauri Smith, running for Ison, stole second but was stranded at third as Shelton retired the last two batters to end the game.

The two teams will continue their three-game series Saturday beginning at 3 p.m.