The No. 14 University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball team clinched its first Peach Belt Conference Regular-season Championship since 2019 with a resounding 3-0 road win over Georgia College (GCSU) in Milledgeville, Ga. on the final day of the regular season.
The win over the Bobcats (28-22, 19-8 Peach Belt) gave the Nighthawks (36-13, 23-4) a share of the PBC crown with Lander, securing their first regular-season title since 2019 and the fourth overall in program history. After a series win over the Bearcats in March, UNG holds the edge in the tiebreaker over Lander and earns the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
Sunday’s win was an emotional one for a UNG team that has been through a lot over the last few seasons, including this year.
In the final season under the direction of legendary head coach Tom Cantrell, the Nighthawks, under the guide of their leader and mentor, are champions of the PBC once again.
“I just love to see it for these guys, for this group,” said Cantrell after the game. “They’ve been through a lot. They’ve been through a lot. And they play hard, they play for each other. There’s no selfishness or animosity with this team, they love each other.”
The togetherness and connection this team shares has been visible throughout the entire season. It was perhaps no more evident than during Sunday’s regular-season finale.
After going 0-for-5 in game two’s 9-1 loss on Saturday, junior center fielder Andrews Opata swung at the very first pitch of the game on Sunday. He drilled a ground ball up the middle into center field for a base hit. There was urgency in Opata’s desire to redeem himself for his game two performance, and he did just that very quickly.
Opata then beat a failed pick off attempt to second base for his 32nd stolen bag of the year. A few pitches later, junior shortstop Jace Bowen dribbled a single up the middle of his own. Opata raced around third and before the Bobcats could blink, UNG held a 1-0 lead.
The Nighthawks expanded on that lead in the third inning thanks to a sacrifice fly from junior second baseman Brady Skipper to score redshirt junior first baseman Phillip Ard after his lead-off double.
UNG’s two runs in the first three innings would be the only offense in the game until the eighth inning.
On the mound, senior right-handed starter Dylan Noce showed impressive poise as he pitched out of numerous jams in the all-or-nothing title game.
In the first inning, Noce conceded back-to-back one-out walks, but escaped the inning with a groundout and a strikeout.
In the second, GCSU recorded a walk and a single in consecutive at bats, once again putting runners at first and second base with one out. This time Noce struck out the first batter and then got a pop up from the next to avoid allowing any runs to score.
The Bobcats had a better opportunity to score in the third inning as a lead-off single and hit batter put the first two runners on base with nobody out. Evan Cowan laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position.
At risk of allowing GCSU to tie the game with a base hit, Noce calmly mitigated the threat with back-to-back weak pop ups to end the inning.
Noce ended the fourth inning in thrilling fashion as a 5-4-3 double play nixed a lead-off single. In the fifth, he finally retired the side in order for the first time on the day.
The Dacula, Ga. native pitched 6.1 scoreless innings allowing just four hits with four strikeouts. Noce conceded four walks in the game, the last of which when his and everyone else’s mind was not on the game at hand.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning and a 2-0 lead, sophomore left fielder Kyle Robitzsch left the game with a gruesome injury. The second-year Nighthawk attempted to make a sliding catch in foul territory and collided with a bench that sits in the GCSU bullpen.
Robitzsch was immediately treated by the medical professionals in attendance before being loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital. He did not lose consciousness and was responsive during medical treatment on the field.
There’s a saying within the UNG baseball program, “It’s all about the NG.” The NG was the only thing on Robitzsch’s mind when he raced for that foul ball. Despite stepping on to the warning track and nearing the fence down the third base line, Robitzsch did not slow down for even a second. He charged at full speed into the dugout. He simply wanted to make the catch for his teammates and produce a big out in the late innings of their search for a title. “Robo” was only thinking about his teammates and not himself at that moment.
After a 40-minute delay to give Robitzsch the proper injury care, Noce walked his last batter and his outing was done. The mood in the UNG dugout had drastically changed. It had gone from energy, excitement and focus on the task at hand for the Nighthawks, to distraction and worry for their teammate. They had something bigger to play for now. UNG not only had to win the game to become league champions, but they had to win it for Robitzsch now too.
So, in the eighth inning, they added an insurance run as Opata once again reached base on a two-out single before stealing second base. Bowen then smacked a seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield as Opata sprinted home and dove in safely with a head first slide.
With a now 3-0 lead, it was up to graduate left-handed pitcher Pierce Williams to close the game for the Nighthawks.
When Cantrell mentions that his players have “been through a lot” over the last few seasons, one of the guys he’s referring to is Williams. He mentioned Williams after the game along with a plethora of other players that have given their heart and soul to UNG baseball over the last 3-5 seasons.
Williams has been in Dahlonega for all five years of his collegiate career. He’s consistently been one of the best pitchers on the Nighthawk staff, but has battled numerous injuries during his tenure in a blue and white jersey.
While he’s only been used as a starter all season, Cantrell chose Williams to close Sunday’s game in a must-win situation. Williams pitched 2.1 scoreless innings and was one out away from sealing the game before allowing back-to-back two-out singles in the ninth.
The tying run came to the plate in the form of GCSU’s lead off hitter, Gabe Wuerth.
Junior outfielder Edwin Bowman IV took Robitzsch’s place in the lineup after the injury. Fitting for a baseball team that’s led by a head coach who loves the game almost more than life itself, the ball found Bowman in the final inning.
As Wuerth lined a 1-1 pitch into right field, Bowman charged and made the catch on the run to end the game and spark a championship celebration behind the mound.
Cantrell turned to his team and raised both fists in the air before going down the line and addressing each member with a handshake and a hug. In his final season with the Nighthawks, these handshakes and hugs felt a little sweeter this time around. Perhaps it was because this time they were exchanged between champions.
UNG ended the 2025 regular season with a 36-13 record. After starting the year 3-4, the Nighthawks won 33 of their next 43 games and never lost two in a row. They won every PBC series for the first time in program history. They were victorious in 65.2 percent of games on the road and won a championship on the road. They broke records, went on win streaks, got better as a team and ultimately brought back to Dahlonega a collection of players and coaches that make Nighthawk Nation proud.
Now UNG gets ready to host the quarterfinals of the 2025 PBC Baseball Tournament at Bob Stein Stadium at Lynn Cottrell Park in Dahlonega this upcoming weekend. The top-seeded Nighthawks will face eighth-seeded Augusta on Friday, May 2 at 11 a.m. to begin play in the double elimination tournament.
UNG was ultimately eliminated from the 2025 Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament after a heartbreaking 15-11 loss to fourth-seeded Columbus State (CSU) Monday, May 5.
The Nighthawks’ play during the conference tournament was enough to get them in the NCAA Tournament. UNG earned the sixth seed in the 2025 NCAA Southeast Regional. In the final season under legendary head coach Tom Cantrell UNG will head to Belmont, N.C. to take on third-seeded and No. 10 Lenoir-Rhyne (LR) Thursday, May 15 to begin play in the regional.
