Falcons > Eagles

Senior Ryan Falcon (2-5) tossed a complete game, two-hit gem, shutting out Georgia Southern 2-0 in Friday's series opener.

First baseman Ricky Orton delivered a two-run bomb in the bottom of the seventh to end the scoreless tie.

Falcon mowed down eight hitters and walked only two. He threw 109 pitches on the night to outduel Eagles starter Brian Wilkerson, who went a strong 8.0 innings with the homer to Orton being his only mistake.

Falcon had a promising career derailed by an elbow injury two seasons ago, but the left-hander slowly worked his way back last season and is fully healthy for 2007.

"Things went well," Falcon said of Friday's start. "We played really good defense. It's good to come out well on Friday night to set the tone for the weekend."

The injury forced Falcon to reinvent himself, as the gem of his repertoire pre-injury was a nasty12-to-6 curveball.

"I hardly threw it at all last year because it just wasn't as good a pitch for me," said Falcon of the pitch. "I threw it a lot more (Friday) and as the year goes on and I get comfortable with it, I'm sure it will be a pitch that I start to use a lot."

Right-hander Greg Martin (1-0) earned his first win of the season after throwing 2.1 hitless innings of relief. Clinton McKinney and Clay Gibson also turned in solid performances out of the pen.

Trailing 3-2 in the third, UNCG (14-14, 3-3) struck for two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 4-3 lead. Tim Carrier rifled a double down the left field line to start the rally and eventually came around to score on Guy Welsh's groundout. Scott Schneider doubled off the wall and Sean Snell drove him home with a two-out single two batters later.

The Eagles stuck back via a pinch-hit home run from Kyle Blackburn. The two-run blast gave Georgia Southern a 5-4 advantage, but it was short-lived as Spartan freshman Corey Overholtzer jacked a two-run shot of his own in the sixth to put UNCG back in front, 6-5.

The long balls weren't done flying out of the yard however, as Chris Shehan homered to tie the game in the seventh. In the bottom half of the frame the Spartans loaded the bases, and with two outs, Brandon Harvey came through with a run scoring single to put the Spartans up for good.

Sunday's finale saw Georgia Southern salvage a game in the series, winning 9-2.

"I'm real glad we won the series but I wish we would have played a little bit better today," said head coach Mike Gaski. "We out hit them, but we just left too many men on base and we didn't pitch well enough." The Spartans had the bases loaded three times and stranded 13 runners on the day.

Alex Shelton (1-3) struck out six, but suffered the loss after running into some trouble by allowing three runs in the fourth inning.

Matt Gaski went 4-for-5 at the plate to lead the way for UNCG.

The Spartans face inner-city rival N.C. A&T today (April 3) at First Horizon Park in downtown Greensboro. First pitch is at 6 p.m. UNCG will then head to Furman for a weekend series in Greenville, S.C.