DAHLONEGA – The No. 16 University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball opened the series with a 5-2 win over USC Aiken Thursday night at Bob Stein Stadium at Lynn Cottrell Park.

The Nighthawks (31-12, 19-3 Peach Belt) rode a career-defining pitching performance from redshirt-junior Matthew Heard to defeat the Pacers (18-25, 8-14) and move one step closer to winning the Peach Belt Regular-season title.

In just his second start of the year, Heard was nearly impossible to hit on Thursday as sliced and diced the Aiken lineup all night long. The spinny right-hander opened the game with five strikeouts in the first three innings.

In the span, Heard allowed one walk and one hit. Unfortunately, they both came in the third inning and the hit was a line drive home run off the bat of Josh Sharp to put the Pacers ahead 2-0.

Heard's counterpart on the mound, Aiken starter Blayne Newman, also started the outing strong.

The right-handed pitcher allowed just three hits in the first four innings while striking out five Nighthawk hitters. 

In the fifth, Newman continued to roll, but the defense behind him did not follow. 

Senior outfielder Jorge Arispuro finally sparked the offense with a lead-off double. The base hit should have been a single but Arispuro legged it out to second base after Pacers left fielder Brody Yeomans let the bouncing ball get past him.

In the very next at bat, Yeomans bobbled another line drive single, this time off the bat of junior second baseman Brady Skipper. It should have been a single, but the misplay allowed Arispuro to score and Skipper to move into scoring position. 

A sudden chill ran through the ballpark as senior third baseman Riley Frost came to bat with Skipper at second and no outs in the inning. On a 1-2 pitch, the Nighthawk veteran lifted a ball to left field that eventually reached its final destination over the wall just beyond the "365" marker to measure Frost's fourth home run of the season. 

The blast suddenly gave UNG its first lead of the game at 3-2. 

Another error prolonged the inning as junior center fielder Andrews Opata reached base with one out. He eventually came around to score after stealing second base when redshirt junior Phillip Ard swung a single through the left side of the infield to make it 4-2.

With a new found comfort on the mound and a two-run lead in his back pocket, Heard really began to cook on the mound.

After setting a new career high for strikeouts with eight as he K'd a pair of batters in the fifth inning, Heard struck out the side in the sixth inning on just 12 pitches. Up to 11 strikeouts on the day, he was not satisfied when he returned to the hill in the seventh. The third-year Nighthawk dispatched Yeomans on just three pitches for his fifth strikeout in a row and 12th in total. 

Heard continued to dominate Aiken retiring the side in the remainder of the seventh inning. After recording outs against the first two hitters of the eighth, Heard completed a miraculous run in which he retired 11 straight batters, six of whom were via a strikeout. 

After the Nighthawks added an insurance run in the sixth inning thanks to an RBI single from senior catcher Bryson Stripling, Heard closed the eighth inning with a groundout and departed the contest with a 5-2 lead. 

Between his second start of the season on Thursday and his last six outings, Heard allowed just two runs over 20.1 innings. The home run from Sharp marked Heard's first run allowed since March 23. He has an earned run average of 0.89 over the last 7 games. 

That setup graduate closer Zach Green for another save. The powerful left-hander took the mound in the ninth and struck out two Pacers batters en route to his team-leading fifth save of the season. Heard earned the win and moved to 4-2 on the year.

The Nighthawks moved one step closer to their first PBC Regular-season Championship since 2019 with Thursday's triumph. They'll look to continue the momentum on Friday when they take the field for game two of the series. First pitch from Bob Stein Stadium is slated for 2 p.m.