BELMONT, N.C. – The No. 22 University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball team dropped its opening game in the 2025 NCAA Southeast Regional 4-2 to No. 12 Lenoir-Rhyne (LR) in Belmont, N.C. Thursday afternoon.

With the loss, UNG falls to the losers bracket and will now be forced to win four games in order to exit the regional tournament and advance to the Southeast Super Regional. 

The Nighthawks will now play Friday, May 16 at 3 p.m. against the loser between second-seeded and host No. 14 Belmont Abbey and seventh-seeded No. 26 Carson-Newman. 

LR entered Thursday's postseason showdown as the second-best home run hitting team in the nation with 117 bombs this season. The Bears utilized that strength with two homers to get past UNG in the first game of the regional.

In the first inning, Cole Stanford connected on a two-out home run with two runners on base to give LR an early 3-0 advantage.

Redshirt freshman Nicholas Stinson then led off the second inning with a double. Senior left fielder Jorge Arispuro advanced Stinson to third base with a fly out to right field. Junior second baseman Brady Skipper then got the Nighthawks on the board with a sacrifice fly to left center field. 

After giving up the three-run homer in the first inning, UNG graduate starting pitcher Pierce Williams steadied things over the next three innings with only three hits allowed and four strikeouts. 

However, Owen Blackledge hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to expand the lead to 4-1.

The Nighthawks responded in the sixth inning with a pair of singles from junior center fielder Andrews Opata and junior shortstop Jace Bowen. 

After advancing to third, Opata then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 game. 

Back-to-back hit batters then loaded the bases with two outs for UNG. However, the Nighthawks were unable to score and left the bases loaded.

Williams continued to pitch marvelously the rest of the game. He only allowed one hit and a total of three base runners after the solo home run in the fifth inning. The lefty closed the game with three more strikeouts over the final three innings.

Despite suffering the loss, Williams pitched eight complete innings and finished with seven hits, four runs, two walks and eight strikeouts. While the loss stings, Williams built the foundation for UNG's comeback efforts from the losers bracket as it has the entire pitching staff at its disposal for the rest of the weekend. 

The Nighthawks will return to Belmont Abbey Field for Friday's elimination game. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.