Loughren leads AU baseball to second straight Battle of the Paddle victory
Justin Gray | Sports editor
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.—The Augusta University baseball team defeated USC Aiken, 12-7, for the second straight season in the Battle of the Paddle at SRP Park Tuesday night, March 26.
Historically, USC Aiken has dominated the rivalry series with a 105-44 advantage, but as of late Augusta has flipped the script, winning three of the last five.
Aiken (8-23) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to two AU errors.
The Jaguars answered back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first on a Brady Loughren single that drove in Dylan Wanat and Kyle Lodise.
USCA extended their lead to 5-2 in the top of the second on some timely singles, but the Jaguars answered once again with two runs, exactly how it happened in the first inning, on a Loughren single.
From there on, it was all AU, as the Jags scored three runs in the third when it began to rain. That’s when the Jaguars took a 7-5 lead. The first run came off of a Wanat single, and the next two came by the exact same way as the first four runs, a Loughren single.
The Jaguars held that lead into the seventh inning when Loughren drove in a run on a single. AU tacked on another when J. Ben Haynes crossed the plate on a passed ball to make it 9-5.
Aiken split the deficit in half in the eighth inning on two run-scoring singles.
Augusta tacked on some insurance in the ninth, extending its lead to 12-7. The first came when Koby Ayala scored on a wild pitch and the other two came on another Loughren single.
Senior Britt Kelly came in to close things out. The AU left-hander allowed two singles, but they didn’t amount to anything as the Jaguars pulled out the victory.
To put Loughren’s game into perspective, he went 5 for 6 at the plate with nine runs batted in. All five of his hits were singles that drove in at least one run.
The Jaguars (20-12) will now switch their focus to Columbus State as they host the Cougars for a three-game set starting on Thursday, March 28 at Jaguar Field. AU is tied for first place with Georgia College in the Peach Belt Conference standings.
Contact Justin Gray at jusgray@augusta.edu.
AU second baseman Koby Ayala fires home as the Pacers’ Josh Sharp hesitates on the base path. At the top of the page, Brady Loughren gets one of his nine runs batted in on single to left field; Loughren had five hits in the contest. (photos by Paula Toole, AU Athletics)
