Irwin throws a complete game 3 hitter; upsets #1 Georgia Perimeter

ALBANY, Georgia – Chris Irwin threw a complete-game three-hitter to lead the West Georgia Tech Golden Knights baseball team to a 2-1 upset victory over No. 17 Georgia Perimeter College Thursday afternoon in the Region 17 Baseball Tournament.

No. 5 seed West Georgia Tech (26-28), winners of seven straight games, will play at noon Friday against the winner of Thursday afternoon’s other contest between Darton State College (38-12-1) and Middle Georgia College (35-13).

The top-seeded Jaguars (36-19) will play an elimination game later Thursday against to loser of the Darton-Middle Georgia contest.

“This was the biggest win in program history,” said WGTC head coach Todd Pratt. “I’m proud of our guys. We are playing our best baseball at the right time. I believe in this club, and I think they believe, too. What a win against a great baseball program.”

West Georgia Tech is playing in the postseason for the first time in the program’s young history and is in just its second year of competition as a junior college Division 1 program.

Going into Thursday’s game West Georgia Tech was 0-12 in its history against Georgia Perimeter, and was 0-4 against them in the regular season this year.

But Chris Irwin stole the show with a spectacular performance on the mound. One day after Brad Bartlett held Gordon State to one run on four hits in a complete game, Irwin was even better Thursday, holding the Jaguars to just three hits and an unearned run. He struck out six and walked one.

Irwin threw 111 pitches, 70 of them for strikes. He recorded a first-pitch strike against 24 of the 34 batters he faced.

“Chris Irwin was unbelievable out there today,” Pratt said. “What a performance. He has done that at times this year but this was as dominant as he has been. We needed this type of effort from our starting pitchers to have a chance, and it has worked out perfectly to this point.”

West Georgia Tech scattered nine hits in the ballgame and the biggest one came in the top of the eighth inning with the score tied at 1-1.

With runners on first and second with one out, Anthony Brown lined a single to center-field which scored Nic Vinson from second base to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.

GPC would have perhaps tied the game or gone in front in the bottom of the eight were it not for a spectacular diving stop by first baseman Rus Morman of a hard-hit ground ball that looked to be going over the first base bag and into no-man’s land in the right field corner with a runner on first base. Morman dove for the ball and got the out at first to prevent further damage.

With a runner in scoring position, Irwin struck out the next batter to end the threat.

The Jaguars got the tying run on base with two out in the ninth but the next batter flied out to centerfield to end the ballgame.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Georgia Perimeter scored a run on a two-out error when the throw to first was misplayed on a strikeout which would have ended the inning.

But West Georgia Tech would answer in the top of the fifth. The Golden Knights tied the game 1-1 with three-straight singles by Beau Welborn, Rus Morman and Nic Vinson, who picked up the RBI.

Vinson was 3-for-5 on the day.

Morman was the only other WGTC player with multiple hits as he went 2-for-5.

If West Georgia Tech wins Friday, it will play for the championship at noon on Saturday. If they lose Friday, they will play in an elimination game at 7 p.m. with the winner of that elimination game advancing to Saturday’s championship.

Pratt said that Kyle Peals will get the start on the mound Friday.