AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern baseball team used a pair of six-run innings to roll past No. 23 Valdosta State, 14-2, Wednesday evening in a non-conference matchup at Hurricane Stadium.
GSW snapped its nine-game losing streak to improve to 5-11 this spring while the Blazers had their five-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 11-4.
Valdosta State held the lead momentarily with the first run of the game in the fourth inning.
The Hurricanes answered quickly. GSW brought 12 men to the plate in the bottom half of the fourth and picked up consecutive RBI singles from Gabe Selochan, Evan Alderman and Brett Burgess before pushing across three more runs to close out the frame up 6-1.
VSU moved within 6-2 with a sacrifice fly from Michael Gouge in the fifth.
Southwestern squashed any thoughts of a VSU comeback in the seventh inning when it posted another 6-run frame. Zach Barron and Dakota Long opened the barrage with back-to-back singles. GSW capitalized on two walks, a Blazers error, a hit batter and another RBI single from Alderman to stretch its lead to 10 runs.
Devyn Newberry knocked in the final two runs for GSW in the eighth.
Alderman and Burgess led GSW's 16-hit attack with four hits apiece. Alderman went 4-for-6 with two RBIs, a stolen base and three runs scored. Burgess was 4-for-5, scored twice and had a RBI. Newberry, Barron and Will Redding added two hits apiece. Barron extended his hitting streak to a team-best nine games.
Kevin Cruz was the lone VSU batter to collect multiple hits as he went 2-for-3 and scored a run.
It wasn't just about the hitting for GSW. The Blazers entered the game with a .361 team batting average, but were held to six hits. Hurricanes starter Coty Graham was charged with one unearned run over his four innings of work. Graham held VSU to four hits while striking out five. Dylan Brown (1-0) was outstanding out of the bullpen as he covered the final five innings, allowed only two hits and one run, walked two and struck out two.
VSU trotted eight pitchers to the hill. Jared Stanley (2-1) took the loss after surrendering the first three GSW runs of the game in the fourth inning.
Southwestern has a day off before resuming Peach Belt Conference with Game 1 of a three-game series against USC Aiken on Friday at 6 p.m.
