LaGrange, GA - The Lions' 2012 season was brought to a close with two losses that were tough to stomach Saturday evening in the Great South Athletic Conference Championship Tournament.  Piedmont fell 10-9 against top-seeded Huntingdon College in a one-run ball game in 13 innings before suffering an 18-5 blowout in the elimination game against the host-team LaGrange College.

The men knocked out 17 hits in the first game, and held the lead all the way until the ninth inning when Huntingdon tied the game in the top half of the inning to send the game to extras.  When the Hawks scored two in the 11th, Piedmont still managed to roar back with a pair of its own in the home half.  Again, Huntingdon's 12th inning run was reciprocated as the Lions tied it once more, but dropped the 10-9 decision after a 13th inning run by the Hawks was not paid back.  Piedmont allowed 17 hits of its own in the loss.

Senior Curtis Cornett collected a team-best four hits.  Junior James Moyer had three, while fellow junior Tim Nunez and sophomore Josh Bailey had two hits each in the loss.  Six other Lions recorded hits, including junior Garrett Lovelace, who plated two runs.  It didn't take long for the Lions to put runs up, as Lovelace singled in Cornett and Bailey in the first inning, taking the lead after allowing a solo run in the top of the first frame.  Senior Kyle Davis doubled to left for a run in the fourth before Bailey and Cornett notched run-scoring hits, putting the men up 5-1.

Huntingdon put two more on the board when reaching senior starter Caleb Cochran for a pair of unearned runs, bridging the gap to just 5-3 in the sixth inning.  Cochran pitched deep into the contest and with much effectiveness, allowing just one earned run, three total, in seven innings, giving up seven hits and two walks to five strikeouts in the no-decision.  After senior Kevin D'Antignac brought another run home in the seventh on a single, Piedmont was back up 6-3.  However, the Hawks finished strong with two in the eighth and one in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

Senior Ed Cook was roughed up for three runs on six hits and a walk in three innings.  After it appeared the Hawks were going to take the win with a two-run 11th, the Lions bounced right back with two of their own.  Freshman Tucker Ehmig tripled in Cornett, who had singled before him.  Moyer's base hit followed and tied the game at eight.  Even when Huntingdon scratched across the go-ahead  run on an error in the 12th, the Lions copied the output and shoved the game into a 13th frame, where the Hawks scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.

Piedmont's elimination game hours later against LaGrange, whom they had beaten 8-4 in the first game of the tournament and had played five times in the last six games, turned out to be an offensive onslaught by the Panthers.  The Lions' 13 hits weren't enough in the blowout, and their 1-0 lead in the top of the first didn't last long at all.  After Davis led off the game with a triple, Bailey singled in the game's first run.  Again, errors cost the Lions, as an unearned run in the home half tied the game.

The Panthers found loads of success in the middle innings, shelling the Lions' pitching for six more runs in the fourth, four in the fifth and another four in the sixth.  It was 12-1 before Piedmont got its next run on senior Ethan Miers sacrifice fly in the sixth.  An inning later, Davis singled in junior Tate Koons, who had led off with a double, but the deficit still stood at 16-3.  Freshman subs helped add two more in the ninth to end the season on somewhat of a high note.  Austin Brick doubled in a run to highlight the inning in the 18-5 loss.  

Piedmont closes the book on a season that saw them be ranked as high as #5 in the nation and knock off many top-25 teams, including Marietta College, the #1-ranked team in the country and defending NCAA Division-III National Champions.  The Lions went 26-17 overall and an even 6-6 in conference play.