Baseball Begins Preparation for Upcoming Season

STATESBORO, Ga. - The 2013 Georgia Southern Baseball team opened their preparation Monday afternoon for the upcoming season with the first practice of the fall. The Eagles will continue practice this week and will hold their first scrimmage on Wednesday.

Georgia Southern, who took to the field for the first time since the summer break as a team, went through batting practice, worked on running the bases and fielding during their first session at J.I. Clements Stadium.

“It's good to be out there as a team,” Head Coach Rodney Hennon said. “It's good to have everybody out there at one time and start working to develop as a team. I thought we had a lot of energy to practice today. I really like the effort, and I thought our guys were very attentive.”

Georgia Southern, who reached the Southern Conference Tournament Championship Game for a second-straight season in the 2012 season, is coming off a 33-27 season in which they rallied from dropping nine of 11 games after losing first round draft pick Victor Roache for the year to finish 26-17.

The Eagles return 26 players from last year's squad including seven starters on the field and two in the weekend rotation. After catching 47 games behind the plate as a freshman, Chase Griffin returns for his sophomore campaign looking to build on his Freshman All-American performance. Griffin was second on the team hitting .320 and led the squad in home runs with 10.

Coach Hennon and his staff added 13 newcomers to the roster in the offseason including Mercer transfer Matt McCall. McCall a redshirt sophomore from Valdosta, Ga., was the ace of the Bears' staff as a true freshman in 2010 and finished the season with a 7-2 record and a 4.79 ERA.

Fans can follow their Eagles at GSEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.

Category: Baseball

Published on Monday, 10 September 2012 19:06