Panthers take GSAC tournament championship
April 26, 2010

  It’s official.

DEMOREST, Ga. – LaGrange College completed a sweep of the 2010 GSAC baseball titles by beating Maryville College 5-3 on Monday at Loudermilk Field in the GSAC tournament championship game.

The Panthers upped their season record to 26-17 and have won eight straight.

The GSAC tournament title was the third for the Panthers, all three coming at Piedmont College. The title was the first since 2006. The Panthers are 9-0 in tournament games at Piedmont College.

Junior catcher Luis Perez was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Perez batted .375, with two doubles and four RBIs. He had a .643 on-base percentage in the three games.

Perez drove in the first run of the game in the fourth inning. Perez's single off Robert Brown (7-2) came with two outs and scored Brent Kinsey, who had reached on an error. Miles Lee followed Perez with an RBI double to put the Panthers up 2-0.

The Panthers up their lead in the fifth inning. Eric Heath walked to start the inning. Robbie Shelton followed with his second home run of the tournament and 11th of the season to make it 4-0.

Maryville got back in the game with two runs in the sixth inning. The Scots cut the Panthers' lead to 4-3 with a run in the eighth inning.

The Panthers got an insurance run in their half of the eighth inning. Kinsey led off the inning with a single. He moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt and over to third on a ground out. Jordan Martinec drove in Kinsey with a pinch-hit single to put the Panthers up 5-3.

James Yancey, who relieved Williams in the eighth inning, quickly got the first two outs in the ninth inning. Maryville put runners on the corners before Yancey got Jeremy Davis to fly out to Heath in center for the final out.

Robby Williams (4-1) pitched into the eighth inning to get the win. Williams allowed all three runs, gave up eight hits, walked three and struck out two. Yancey picked up his first save of the season with the two scoreless innings of work.

The Panthers had eight hits. Kinsey was the only Panther with two hits. Maryville had nine hits; with Myles Cordell and Aaron Johnson each having two.