DAHLONEGA – The No. 22 University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball team rode a wave of home runs to a 10-4 victory over Anderson at Bob Stein Stadium at Lynn Cottrell Park on Tuesday night. 

The Nighthawks (25-9, 12-2 Peach Belt) belted four home runs as a team against Anderson (19-15, 8-10 South Atlantic) on Wednesday. 

UNG's bats have come to life in a big way on the back end of its active five-game winning streak. Since a record-setting 31-1 victory at Augusta last Saturday, the Nighthawks have crushed 12 home runs over a three-game span. 

In other words, UNG has smacked 30.8 percent of its 39 total home runs this year in the last three games. Even more impressively, only one of those games was a full nine innings as the final two outings at Augusta were called prematurely due to the mercy rule and inclement weather.

The top of the totem pole in the home run category this season has been redshirt junior first baseman Phillip Ard. He has 16 bombs on the year which leads the conference and is tied for fourth-most in the country.

The powerful slugger launched another two deep shots on Tuesday to help lead UNG to its 14th win in the last 16 games. 

Ard's first homer of the game came in the bottom of the first after the Nighthawks had surrendered a run in the top half of the inning. With a runner on base, Ard triggered a swing on the first pitch he saw. From the moment it left the bat he, and everyone else lucky enough to witness the swing, knew it was gone. 

A moonshot that unofficially left his bat at 106 mph and traveled a projected distance of 402 feet gave UNG a 2-1 lead. 

Behind a run-scoring error and an RBI single from junior second baseman Brady Skipper, the Nighthawks closed the first inning ahead 4-1. 

Ard added his third RBI of the day as he reached on a fielder's choice, scoring junior center fielder Andrews Opata from third.

UNG's offense slowed down in the middle innings as the Trojans began to chip away at the lead. A sacrifice fly in the third inning made it 5-2 before an error and an RBI single in the sixth turned the contest into just a one-run game.

With Anderson nipping at the heels of the Nighthawks, Ard stepped into his office in the right-handed batter's box in the seventh inning.

On a 1-2 pitch, Ard crushed his second homer of the day to left center field making it 7-4 in UNG's favor. 

After tying the program record with three home runs in Saturday's 31-1 destruction of Augusta, Ard waited a mere 72 hours before recording his third multi-homer game of the season.

Since that Saturday matchup, the Cochran, Ga. native has batted in 15 runners in just 13 at bats. Going 2-for-4 with his pair of bombs and five RBI on Tuesday, Ard has homered in 38.4 percent of his at bats in the last three games. His 67 RBI this season now lead all NCAA Division-II hitters this year.

He now leads the nation in RBI, ranks fourth in home runs and sits No. 39 in the country with a .766 slugging percentage. Of the 38 hitters ahead of Ard in slugging, none have recorded more at bats than his 137 this season. 

Ard's leadership with the long ball trickled down to the rest of the lineup after his seventh-inning blast on Tuesday. 

In the eighth inning, senior catcher Bryson Stripling ripped his second home run of the year. His shot to left field made it 9-4.

In the very next at bat, Opata demolished another homer. His eighth of the season cemented a 10-4 victory for the Nighthawks. 

UNG will now prepare for a conference road series in Americus, Ga. against the Hurricanes of Georgia Southwestern. First pitch on Friday in the three-game set is scheduled for 6 p.m.