FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 2-24-02

College Baseball: Armstrong Atlantic State 7, Georgia 6 (11 inn.)

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Junior Chris Boaen scored the winning run in the 11^th inning when Georgia catcher Clint Sammons' throw to third base on a sacrifice bunt sailed past the third baseman, giving the Armstrong Atlantic State Pirates a 7-6 win in the final game of the 2002 Memorial Health Diamond Classic at Grayson Stadium on Sunday affternoon.

Boaen led off the 11^th with a single up the middle off of Georgia reliever Jeffery Carswell (0-1), then moved to second when Rob Mills was hit by a pitch. Freshman Bryan Wilson delivered a sacrifice bunt right in front of the plate and Sammons fired the ball too high at third base for Bulldog third sacker Justin Holmes, allowing the Savannah Christian product Boaen to score the winning run. It was the Pirates' first-ever baseball win over the University of Georgia (2-1) in three previous tries.

Junior Jeremy Olson (1-0) held the Bulldog batters in check, hurling five innings of one-hit baseball, striking out six to pick up the victory in relief for No. 13-ranked Division II Pirates (13-3). Carswell gave up four hits in 2 2/3 innings, striking out four and allowing just the unearned run.

Georgia opened the scoring in the 3:45-long game with a single run in the first, but the Pirates took the lead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the first on a Mills RBI single and a Kirk Nordness RBI groundout. A Mills sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 3-1, but Georgia stormed back with two runs in the fourth inning on a solo home run by Lee Mitchell and a Sammons RBI single.

UGA would take the lead in the fifth on a fielder's choice RBI by Adam Swann, then padded the lead with back-to-back sacrifice flies in the top of the seventh to go up, 6-3. AASU catcher David

Harriman - who hit the Pirates' game-winning home run against Connecticut on Friday - hit a three-run blast off of Bulldog reliever Matt Woods to tie the game and set up the extra inning heroics.

AASU collected 12 hits on the day, led by Boaen's three hits in five at-bats. Chaz Lytle led the Bulldogs with three hits and two runs scored. Georgia committed an uncharacteristic five errors on the day, leading to four of the seven runs being unearned.

The Pirates and the Bulldogs each finished the inaugural Memorial Diamond Classic with 2-1 records. AASU next hosts Kutztown in a non-conference game at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 28 at Pirate Field. Georgia opens up its home schedule on Tuesday against Mercer.

- Pirates -