ROME – The Shorter Hawks looked to knock off the Mississippi College Choctaws to take an early lead in the weekend conference series. Unfortunately for the Hawks, late-inning woes derailed those plans as the Hawks dropped the series opener 13-12.
 
Shorter jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Justin Barnes scored on a wild pitch. The Choctaws got four runs back in the top of the second.
 
The Hawks chipped away at the three-run deficit, scoring one run in the third and two runs in the fourth. Justin Barnes hit a solo shot in the third inning to cut the deficit. Nathaniel Butterworth scored on a throwing error and Matt Christian followed with a single to left field, plating Aaron Reardon.
 
Mississippi College added seven runs throughout the fifth and sixth innings before the Hawks offense exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Reardon hit an RBI double to right field which scored Justin Guyton. Bailey Gerstner highlighted the inning with a towering grand slam to right center field.
 
The Shorter offense continued to push runs across runs in the seventh and eighth innings, taking a 12-11 lead into the ninth inning. Jakob Woods used an RBI single to left field to score Reardon in the seventh inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Luis Acevado and Butterworth both used sacrifice flies to tie the game and take the lead. Acevado's sac fly scored Ivan Nunez and Butterworth plated Cory Mason to take a late lead.
 
In the top of the ninth, the Choctaws had a two-run blast to retake the lead at 13-12. Shorter's offensive explosion ran out gas and stalled out in the bottom of the ninth with the Hawks going down in order.
 
Up Next
Shorter and Mississippi College will be back in action with two games on Saturday afternoon. First pitch from Rome will take place at 12:00 PM ET.