PENSACOLA, Fla. – 24th-ranked Valdosta State scored four runs in the seventh inning and held on for a 6-4 win over UWF at Jim Spooner Field on Friday.
UWF (20-18, 14-9 Gulf South) scored three in the bottom of the seventh and one in the eighth but was unable to do any further damage in dropping the first game of the 3-game series.
VSU (27-11, 16-8) matched UWF with eight hits and got a grand slam from leading power hitter EJ Doskow, who's ninth homer gave the Blazers a 6-0 lead in the seventh.
Elijah Gill (8-1) went 7.2 and allowed four runs on seven hits before giving way to the Blazer bullpen, who allowed just one Argo hit in the final 1.1 innings.
"(Elijah) Gill was really good tonight and he's been good since he's been there," UWF head coach
Mike Jeffcoat said. "He was working the fastball really good and we just couldn't get on time. We finally started squaring some up late but it was just a little too late.
"And (EJ) Doskow was the one guy in the lineup we didn't want to beat us and he made us pay. I thought our team competed tonight. We just couldn't get the offense going early enough. I thought (Dilan) Lawson threw well and other than the one pitch (Sam) Brown threw, he pitched well."
Dilan Lawson (3-2) threw 5.1 innings and struck out five while allowing just two runs on five hits.
Preston Moore led the offense with three hits and scored a run. Five other guys had one hit each for the Argos.
For VSU, Luke Ard was the only player with multiple hits, finishing with two of their eight.
After each team put runners on in the second, the Blazers broke through first, using a double and an Ard infield groundout to score Ryan Villaman in the third.
An inning later, VSU added to their lead with one run. Orlando Adams singled and stole second, before coming home on Jacob Harper's double into the left field corner.
In the seventh, the Blazers loaded the bases with two outs when Doskow hit a home run to straight-away center to extend the lead to 6-0.
Josh Prizina put the Argos in the scoring column in the home half of the seventh when he belted a 3-run homer into the trees in left center for his seventh long ball of the year.
UWF trimmed the deficit to 6-4 on
Mark Townsend's 2-out, RBI double that scored
Brady Browning from first in the eighth.
"We just have to regroup (on Saturday) and try to win the first one and get back in this series," Jeffcoat added.
The teams will return to play on Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The games will be Military Appreciation Day and Senior Day.
