Georgia Gwinnett College Baseball Captures CAC Baseball Championship
The nationally ranked Georgia Gwinnett College baseball team completed a dominating clean sweep of the 2023 Continental Athletic Conference Baseball Championship tournament with a 27-4 victory over Fisher College (Massachusetts) in Monday's championship game at the Grizzly Baseball Complex.
The Grizzlies (47-5; ranked No. 4 nationally) scored 60 runs across three straight victories to capture their fourth straight conference tournament championship and seventh title overall.
GGC once again didn't waste much time setting the tempo in the game, tallying eight hits to score 11 runs after sending 16 batters to the plate in the top of the second inning.
Devin Warner played a key role in the frame with a run-scoring single from each side of the plate. He opened the scoring with an RBI single from the right side before switching to the left side of the batter's box for another RBI single, this time to right field.
Warner's second base hit in the inning gave the top-seeded team a 9-0 advantage.
Jesus Pacheco and Jon Ponder joined Kyle Norton in drawing bases-loaded walks on consecutive at-bats. Joe Quelch followed with a run-scoring single to left field that plated another run, and two were added to the scoreboard on a base hit by Braxton Meguiar.
Cohen Wilbanks capped the productive inning with a two-run double to score Meguiar and Warner with GGC's 10th and 11th runs, respectively.
The Grizzlies kept up the pace in each of the following seven innings, finishing with 24 hits for the game. Ponder hit a solo home run in the fourth inning while going 2-for-4, with three runs scored. The center fielder was named the 2023 CAC Baseball Championship's Most Outstanding Player.
It was a total team championship performance with seven of GGC's nine starting players collecting at least two hits. Meguiar and Warner each went 4-for-4 at the plate, while Meguair drove in five runs and Warner followed by a four-RBI effort.
Meanwhile, five pitchers combined to register 13 strikeouts. Reliever Ben Weber struck out three batters across two scoreless innings to pick up his second win of the season.
2023 CAC Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team
Most Outstanding Player: Jon Ponder, Georgia Gwinnett College
Ajay Sczepkowski, Georgia Gwinnett College
Devin Warner, Georgia Gwinnett College
Gage Williams, Georgia Gwinnett College
Tim Catalano, Fisher College
Yadriel Cuadrado, Fisher College
Ivanuel Hernandez, Fisher College
Cauy Massner, Iowa Wesleyan University
Carlos Vicente, Iowa Wesleyan University
Jeremy De La Cruz, Florida National University
Roberto Fernandez, Florida National University