ATLANTA -- Georgia State fell to Northern Kentucky 6-5 in 11 innings Friday at the GSU Baseball Complex as the Norse scored the winning run on an error.
The Panthers (5-4) trailed in the seventh inning or late in each of their five victories, and it appeared they might earn another comeback win when freshman Zach Moon hit his first homer of the season with a solo blast in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 5-5.
Georgia State put two runners on in both the eighth and 10th innings but could not push across the go-ahead run.
In the top of the 11th, NKU's Brad Bohlen led off with an infield single. The Norse failed to move him over when Ryan Lefevers popped up a bunt to pitcher Jerry Stuckey. But Kyle Colletta's one-out single put runners at first and second. Stuckey (2-1) got a ground ball from Logan Spurlin for a potential inning-ending double play. Colletta was forced at second base, but Greg Bowder's throw to first bounced into the dugout, allowing the Bohlen to score from second.
"I want to give Northern Kentucky credit because they were hungry and they played well enough to win," GSU head coach Greg Frady said. "We did not possess enough discipline at the plate to have good at-bats. We've been really cutting it close in a lot of these games, and tonight we just didn't do enough of the little things to win a baseball game.
"If we are going to be a good baseball team, we are going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight. We made the error at the end to allow the go-ahead run, and we had so many give-away at-bats where we got ourselves out early in counts."
Georgia State jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Nic Wilson's two-out double scored Bowder, who singled, and the Chase Raffield belted his first homer of the season over to right center.
But NKU starter Cody Cooper retired 10 of the next 11 Panthers through four innings, and the Norse (2-7) tied the game with three runs in the third, highlighted by Cody Kuzniczci's two-run homer.
The Panthers regained the lead with an unearned run in the fifth. Caden Bailey led off with a single, moved to second on Moon's sacrifice and scored on an error for a 4-3 GSU lead.
But the Norse answered in the sixth on Colletta's RBI single to tie the game and then took the a 5-4 lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Procyshen.
NKU reliever Jake Shaw (1-0) earned the victory with 3.2 innings of scoreless relief in which he allowed just one hit.
The three-game series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and concludes with a 1 p.m. game Sunday.
