LAGRANGE – The series started out in outstanding fashion for the LaGrange College Panthers, who thumped visiting Piedmont 14-1 on Sunday.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, the final two games of the USA South series didn’t go quite as well.

After losing the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader 3-1, LaGrange College fell to Piedmont 15-5 on Monday in the series finale.

The Lions took control early, scoring runs in each of the first three innings to build a 5-0 lead, and they kept pouring it on to win the rubber game in the series.

LaGrange College (10-8 overall) fell to 2-4 in the conference, while Piedmont (10-5) improved to 3-3 in USA South play.

Piedmont hammered out 18 hits against three LaGrange College pitchers, and it scored at least one run in all but one inning.

First baseman Breck Davidson did a lot of the damage for Piedmont.

Davidson was 4-for-5 with four RBIs, and he hit for the cycle, meaning he had a home run, a triple, a double and a single.

Blake Butcher had two of the Panthers’ five hits with an RBI, Casey Bell knocked in a run with a double, and Kyle Gutowski had a run-scoring single.

Chad Pigg also had an RBI for the Panthers.

Former Callaway Cavalier Tavin Thompson had his 17-game hit streak snapped, but he did reach base twice on walks, and he scored two runs.

Austin Brown (0-1) got the start for the Panthers, and he gave up seven runs on nine hits in four innings.

Andrew Weekley pitched three solid innings and he worked around five hits to allow just one earned run, and Zach English threw the final two innings and gave up three runs.

The Panthers committed five errors that led to four unearned runs.

LaGrange College will be on the road for its next nine games, beginning with today’s game against Berry College.

LaGrange College will return to conference play on Friday for the start of a three-game series against Huntingdon.

LaGrange College won’t be home again until March 22 when it faces Oglethorpe.

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports