AMERICUS, GA – Junior left-hander Matt Kelley pitched a complete game and struck out 15 Georgia Southwestern State University batters as Francis Marion University defeated the Hurricanes 3-1 and swept Sunday's (April 26) Peach Belt Conference baseball doubleheader.   In the finale, the Patriots rallied and scored eight of the last nine runs to outlast GSW 16-13 in 11 innings.

Francis Marion's record improves to 27-17 and 15-12 in the PBC.  The Patriots are seventh in the league standings and qualify for the Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament on May 9-10.  Georgia Southwestern drops to 13-33 and 4-26.

The third and final game of the series is slated for Monday at 1 p.m. at GSW's Hurricane Stadium. 

Kelley's (7-3) 15 strikeouts equaled the third-highest single game total in team history, two shy of the record.  For the season, the Hampton, Ga. native's 105 strikeouts lead all conference hurlers.

GSW scored its lone run of the contest on junior outfielder Brett Burgess' RBI single, one of only four Hurricane hits.   But as Kelley quieted the Hurricane lineup, Georgia Southwestern only mustered one hit after the third inning, a single in the seventh by junior outfielder Devyn Newberry. 

Meanwhile, FMU plated all three of its runs in the fifth inning.  Junior center fielder Casey Clauss' sacrifice fly produced the first tally.  Junior third baseman Randy Loew slashed a two-run single up the middle.

GSW junior right-hander Earl Dupree (1-8) was stung with the loss, fanning seven while allowing nine hits in 7.1 innings of work. 

Both Loew and senior Matt Rubino were 2-for-4.  Burgess' 2-for-4 effort paced the Georgia Southwestern offense.

In what can be described as a see-saw slugfest, Francis Marion trailed 7-3 in the fifth inning of Sunday's game two, but registered the game's next five runs, thanks in part to three Hurricanes errors over the fifth and sixth innings, to take an 8-7 lead.  

After plating three in the sixth, GSW freshman Dakota Long and Newberry bashed back-to-back solo homers in the seventh to put the Patriots in a 12-8 hole. 

FMU blasted back with a five-run onslaught in the eighth.  Loew doubled to left field to score a run.  Rubino, who went 3-for-5 with a powerful six RBIs in game two, delivered a sac fly RBI, senior catcher Nicholas McGee gashed in a run on a double to center field, and junior second baseman Cole Morris ripped a two-run single, giving FMU the 13-12 edge.

The pendulum swung back to the Hurricanes when Newberry responded with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the eighth to tie the ball game at 13-13.

In the last of the ninth, FMU senior reliever Jordy Santak (4-3) entered with a GSW runner at first.  He struck out a pair in each of the game's last three innings and did not allow another Hurricanes hit, earning the win on the mound.  Altogether, FMU pitchers combined to fan 13 in the second contest.

Rubino supplied the clutch two-run triple in the top of the 11th inning and later scored on a wild pitch to help seal the game.

Georgia Southwestern pitcher Jordan McIlwain (0-5) picked up the loss, surrendering three runs on three hits while walking and fanning three in 2.2 innings of relief.

FMU's Clauss went 3-for-7 in the finale, McGee was 3-for-6, and senior JD Crowe went 2-for-5 with four runs scored and extended his streak of reaching base safely to 26 games.