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LEWISTON, Idaho – Jon Ponder hit his 10th home run of the season and made an even bigger play in center field to end the game with the bases loaded, as Georgia Gwinnett beat Tennessee Wesleyan for the second time in the 2025 Avista NAIA World Series, a 5-3 win at Harris Field in Lewiston.  

Ponder, Scott Seeker, and Matthew Lee were all 2-for-4, for Georgia Gwinnett. Seeker drove in two, and Ponder scored twice, along with Alex Harrell, who was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Josh Shelly went 4-for-5 for Tennessee Wesleyan.

After a frustrating Tuesday night, offensively, Georgia Gwinnett did not waste time getting runners in scoring position Wednesday, as Ponder led off the bottom of the first with a double. After moving to third, Ponder came home on Harrell’s single in to center field, and Seeker singled to get Harrell to third before the Grizzlies made it 2-0 on a squeeze bunt by Zayd Brannigan.

Seeker tacked on another pair of GGC runs in the fifth, doubling to the wall in left, scoring Harrell and Kyle Norton.

Through five turns at the plate, Tennessee Wesleyan had made 11 of its first 15 outs in the air, but in the sixth, Chris Catalano broke through and doubled, scoring Brayan Espinoza and Corbin Shaw. Catalano’s double cut GGC’s lead in half, 4-2.

In the seventh, the Bulldogs loaded the bases, but a well-placed mound visit by the Georgia Gwinnett staff set Shane Anderson up to get an inning-ending fly ball on the infield, on the first pitch after the visit.

Ponder extended the lead with his home run to go up 5-2 in the seventh, and in the eighth, the Grizzlies got out of another jam, as Anderson worked around a leadoff walk and a hit, ending the inning on a fly-out and consecutive batters on strikes.

Anderson returned for the ninth and got two outs, but Tennessee Wesleyan got runners to the corners. That brought Tyler E. Martin, but the first batter he faced singled, as Jack Stevens made it 5-3. A hit batter loaded the bases, but Martin got the out, as Ponder made a leaping grab in center to end the game.  

Georgia Gwinnett (57-5) gets the losing team of tonight’s game between LSU Shreveport (La.) and Southeastern (Fla.), Thursday at 3 p.m. PT. The game will air live on the NAIA Network and Urban Edge Network at www.naia.org/watch.

Tennessee Wesleyan exits the 2025 Series and ends the season with an overall record of 48-14.