LAGRANGE, Ga. - The East #1 seed NC Wesleyan University Baseball team dropped Game 1 of their USA South Conference Championship Series 4-1 to West top seed LaGrange College on Friday evening in Georgia.

LaGrange got off to a 2-0 lead off Bishop senior starter Derrick Carter scoring on an RBI single in the 2nd and an RBI double in the third. LC then added a third run off Carter in the 5th inning to lead 3-0 after five innings.

The Bishops then got on the board in the 6th inning on an RBI single from junior CF Drifton Padgett that scored sophomore 1B Jackson Hobbs, who had singled to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt from catcher Jean Lagreca, senior LF Zach Lyon then stepped up and roped a single to the right-center gap, but was unfortunately thrown out at 2nd base trying to stretch the hit into a double. 

LC (36-6) then added an unearned run in the 8th scoring off a Bishop error to make it 4-1.

Padgett, Hobbs, and sophomore SS Tyson Bass all led the Bishops with two-hit games each while Carter (8-3) tossed all 8 innings allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 9 hits while walking five and striking out six. Carter went over the 100 strikeout plateau in the game as well as he has 102 Ks on the year and a 2.64 ERA.

Padgett is now batting .359 with 45 runs scored and 18 stolen bases while Hobbs is hitting .345.

The Bishops fall to 28-16 overall and will next battle the Panthers in game 2 of their final series with a 2:00 PM start on Saturday. Wesleyan will serve as the "home" team in the game and bat second. If the Bishops win, they will force the "If Necessary" game three to begin around 6:00 PM Saturday evening.