LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. --- Ryan Daly had a day to remember for the University of St. Francis baseball team on Saturday, recording a career-high 14 strikeouts in a 4-3 upset win over NAIA No. 2-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College before the Grizzlies rallied for 11 of the final 12 runs in Game 2 to gain a split on the day with an 11-6 victory.

A big three-run fifth inning locked in the first win of the season for Daly (1-1) in Game 1.  The Saints (2-5) used that momentum to take an early 5-0 lead in the nightcap only to have Georgia Gwinnett (15-2) score in six of the final seven innings, including posting multiple runs in three of the frames.

Nate Maliska and John McGuire both recorded hits in each contest with McGuire registering his first home run of the season in Game 2 as part of a 3-for-8 afternoon for him.  Alex Martinez drove in one run in each contest, as well.

Game 1: USF 4, Georgia Gwinnett 3
Daly's 14-strikeout performance set the school record for a seven-inning game with the final four K's closing out the contest for the senior.  The first of those four got him out of a sixth-inning jam with runners on second and third base after Georgia Gwinnett had made it a 4-3 game.

Daly (1-1) authored multiple K's in six of the seven innings, including retiring the side in order in the final inning via the strikeout route.  The 14 strikeouts were offset by just two walks and five hits with the three earned runs.  He threw 109 pitches in the route-going performance.

Cliff Vickers' RBI single in the third inning tied the game at one and was sandwiched around individual runs by Georgia Gwinnett in the second and third innings.

USF used two singles, a walk and two wild pitches to cobble together the three runs in the decisive scoring inning for the Saints.  Two of the runs scored on the wild pitches with the eventual winning run driven in by Martinez on a fielding error.

Josh Kirnbauer and Max Montgomery each had a pair of singles for the Saints, who outhit the Grizzlies, 8-5.

Game 2: Georgia Gwinnett 11, USF 6
RBIs from Drew Dant (single), Martinez (groundout) and McGuire (single) led to a four-run, first-inning outburst for the Saints.  Dant's second single in as many innings pushed the advantage up to 5-0 in the second.

After being retired in order in the first inning, Georgia Gwinnett got back on track the rest of the afternoon with all nine starters recording at least one hit and five producing multiple hits, not to mention three home runs.  Paul Winland Jr. doubled and homered as part of a 3-for-5, 2-RBI game for him.  Joe Quelch, who homered in both ends of the doubleheader, went 2-for-5 with two runs driven in in Game 2.

The Grizzlies erased the 5-0 deficit by the end of the third inning before scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh frames and then pulling away in the eighth inning with three more runs.

McGuire briefly knotted the score at six-all with his solo home run to left field to lead off the sixth inning.  He went 2-for-4 in the game with 2 RBIs and one run scored.  Dant had the same hit and RBI totals, while Jake Klepacz went 2-for-4 with one run scored.       

Notes: The school record for strikeouts in a game is 15 set by Michael Quiram in a nine-inning contest against Warner University (Fla.) on March 4, 2019 … Daly's previous-high strikeout count was eight set in both 2021 and 2022 … Maliska has hit safely in each of his last four games and six of seven contests … Dant saw his four-game hitting streak end in Game 1, but returned to record his third multi-hit contest in the nightcap … Klepacz's two-hit affair in Game 2 was his second in just four games … The Saints and Georgia Gwinnett wrap up the three-game series on Sunday at 1 pm.

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