Drew Wilson gave up six hits and three earned runs over four innings pitched on May 5 against Andrew College. The Chargers defeated Andrew 15-4. Photo by Abigail Allmond

Georgia Highlands baseball beat Andrew College 15-4 on May 5. Jaree Pledger, Bryson Horne, Skylar McPhee and Austin Foster all had 5 AB’s and McPhee had four hits. Foster had 4 RBI.

Pitcher Drew Wilson had a final line of 4.0 IP, six hits and three earned runs.

This season the Chargers played 52 games, had 343 runs, a batting average of .310, an on base percentage of .409 and 32 home runs. Their overall record was 29-23 and 12-18 in the GCAA conference.

Even though the Chargers didn’t make it to the playoffs, they had a great season and should be proud of themselves.

Lady Charger Micayla McCoy pitches against Georgia Military College during a game earlier this season. McCoy pitched seven innings during the doubleheader on April 28 against West Georgia Tech. Photo by Abigail Allmond

Georgia Highlands’ softball team is heading to the GCAA softball tournament, and they are hosting it. All games will take place at Stars Field, located at 2200 Joe Frank Harris Parkway in Cartersville.

The GCAA softball tournament will run from May 4 until May 6. The Lady Chargers defeated South Georgia State 5-2 to on May 4 at 1:30 p.m. at Stars Field to advance to the next round of the GCAA tournament. They then defeated Georgia Military College 7-4 in that round on May 5 to advance to the GCAA championship game on May 6.

The Lady Chargers will now face South Georgia State on May 6 at 1 p.m. Make sure to go cheer on our Chargers and watch out for updates on sixmilepost.com and on Twitter @6MilePost.

Before going to the postseason, the Lady Chargers beat West Georgia Tech in a doubleheader on April 28. In the first game, they beat West Georgia Tech 13-1 and in the second game, they beat West Georgia Tech 15-5.

Outfielder Mackenzy McFarland was on top of both games totaling four home runs. Shortstop Shayla Smith didn’t let anything get past her.

Third baseman Kindell Reeves was on top of the hits as well. Reeves had two hits and had three RBI in game one.

Pitcher Micayla McCoy pitched four innings in the first game and three innings in the second game.

Peyton Henderson pitched one inning in the first game and two in the second game.

Nick Piccapietra stands in the box preparing to hit versus West Georgia Tech. Photo by Abigail Allmond.

Georgia Highlands’ baseball team defeated West Georgia Tech by a score of 13-12 on March 16.

They went 10 innings deep with a close score the whole game. Georgia Highlands trailed behind West Georgia Tech with only a few runs difference, but the Chargers weren’t going to lose this one. They were determined and ready for a fight.

Parker Orr hit a home run in the bottom of the eighth making the game tied. The score was 12-12 in the ninth inning and they weren’t stopping until the tie was broken. Bryson Horne hit a walk off, winning the game for the Chargers with a score of 13-12. Horne had two RBI as well as three hits for the game.

Head Coach Dash O’Neill was ecstatic for his team and was proud of how hard they played. O’Neill said, “We were down six runs two different times and came back and won the ball game in extras so it was unbelievable effort by our guys to finally stop the bleeding. A lot of credit to West Georgia Tech, it felt like they could not make an out in the first four or five innings and finally we got them stopped.”

“Sam Warren did an awesome job of shutting them down out of the bullpen and Bryson Horne did what he has been doing all year and he got the big hit,” said O’Neill

Warren and Horne were also excited about their performances and the team’s overall performance.

Matthew Norton takes the hill against West Georgia Tech. Photo by Abigail Allmond.

“I feel pretty good. Coming in I knew we were down and knew the team was counting on all of us and my defense had my back through it all,” Warren said.

Horne also commented on his performance, “I feel good. Past couple games I didn’t see the ball well and I didn’t hit them great but today I just felt good coming out,” said Horne.

The Chargers also won their other two games against West Georgia tech on March 17. They won the first game 4-1 and the second game 5-1.

Sports Update

As of April 11, the Chargers are 24-15 for the season.  They have a 10-10 conference record after falling 11-2 to South Georgia State on April 8.

The next home game for the Chargers will be on April 27 at 6 p.m.

All of the team’s home games are played at the LakePoint Sporting Community.

Charger head coach Dash O’Neill talks to infielder Willis Kemp during the game against Sinclair on Feb. 25. Photo by Abigail Allmond

The Georgia Highlands Chargers baseball team defeated Sinclair Community College 7-3 on Feb. 25. GHC has won two out of their three games over Sinclair Community College from Dayton, Ohio.

Highlands started out strong with Skylar McPhee hitting a fast ball with bases loaded. McPhee gave GHC a score of 1-0 in the bottom of the first.

Bryson Horne hit a solid ball with bases still loaded making the score 2-0.

Mathew Norton pitched a solid fastball stopping Sinclair from scoring in the top of the second. In the bottom of the second, bases loaded, Blake Brady hit deep into the outfield and made the score 3-0.

Dash O’Neill, Chargers head coach, was overall very pleased with his team this weekend. O’Neill stated, “Sinclair is the number ten team in the country and we were able to win the series against them.”

O’Neill continued, “I feel like we could’ve swept but we had a couple opportunities get out of our hands last night. I am incredibly proud of my guys.”

O’Neill said, “Matt Norton did exactly what we needed him to do and he gave us a great start.”

Norton said, “I thought my performance was good. The team played very well behind me. It was a great day.”

Sports Update

As of March 13, the Chargers are 17-7 for the season after defeating ABAC 14-1.

The team’s next home game will be on March 26 at 5 p.m. against ABAC.

Nick Fink (in Georgia Highlands Jersey) receives his National Golden Glove alongside his coach, Dash O’Neill and teammate Devin Bilardello and GHC President Donald Green. File Photo

Striving forward is something everyone wants to do whether it is in a sport, career, or just daily life.

Former Georgia Highlands baseball player first baseman Nick Fink is striving forward even after his time at Georgia Highlands and he is succeeding tremendously.

Fink graduated from Georgia Highlands in 2017. zHe was a part of the NJCAA region 17 championship team and is now studying nursing and continuing his baseball career at LaGrange College.

Fink was committed to Young Harris College, a private university in Young Harris, Georgia.

He decided to continue his education at LaGrange College, a private university in LaGrange, Georgia.

At LaGrange, he plans to focus on getting his nursing degree and continue playing the sport he loves at the same time.

Fink said, “Playing at Georgia Highlands really helped me to keep striving forward and work harder every single day.”

Fink continued, “Coach O’Neill really pushed the team to be the best we could be every day.”

In his final season with Georgia Highlands, Fink batted .245.

Fink also had five home runs, 28 RBIs and had a .399 slugging percentage.

Fink received a national Golden Glove Award  after his sophomore season at GHC.

Drew Wilson. Photo by Abigail Allmond

Pitcher Drew Wilson had a phenomenal season with the Georgia Highlands baseball team last year. The team made it all the way to and won the NJCAA region 17 conference championship. The winning season was Wilson’s first season as a Charger.

Wilson transferred from Roane State Community College after reconstructive shoulder surgery and chose Georgia Highlands to be his comeback school his spring semester of his freshmen year and he quickly became acclimated.

Georgia Highlands was Wilson’s first choice after high school but at the time thought Roane State was the place to go. He injured his shoulder his senior year of high school. Wilson ended up having surgery as soon as the season started at Roane State due to his shoulder popping at practice.

The injury didn’t keep him away, however. The love of the game is what brought him back. Last season was a great season for Wilson and the Chargers. Wilson had 8 wins while giving up 77 hits, 42 runs, two home runs and had an earned run average of 3.25.

Some of his personal goals include having at least 10 wins and an earned run average of under 2.

Danyel O’Neill, head coach, had nothing but positive words about Wilson.

O’Neill called Wilson a phenomenal pitcher with a great future ahead of him. Wilson hopes to accomplish having another great season with the Chargers by winning in the playoffs as well as winning another conference championship and winning the national championship. Wilson believes this will be the season and is working as hard as he can with the Chargers to make that happen.

The new season for the Lady Chargers softball team has the entire team excited.

According to shortstop Shayla Smith, “There are no concerns going forward. We are really relying on the freshmen this season to make a difference because we don’t have as many sophomores so there will really be competition, but that’s what makes the game better.”

Melissa Wood, head coach, seems just as excited as the players for this upcoming season. “No concerns here! We do have a new player on our roster who transferred from Gardner Webb. We are trying to get everyone adapted and on the same page. We have great sophomores and freshmen,” said Wood.

Wood also mentioned the players who were all-region. Those players include all-region pitcher Micayla McCoy, all-region shortstop Smith and all-region second baseman Hannah Wills.

The Lady Chargers have a tough schedule ahead of them but are ready to take it on and play the way they know they can.

Wood stated, “They put us in the middle of the pack last year; in conference we always have a good winning record. This last year we were 43-13 so they put us in the top division of each tournament, so we are playing a ton of ranked teams and that’s where we want to be.”

Last season, the Lady Chargers were very close to winning the regular season by one game and this year their excitement has them heading in full force ready to win it all.