Long Ball Lifts Baseball to Series Win

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team picked up their first Southern Conference series victory of the year with a 6-5 win over UNCG on Sunday afternoon. The combination of pitchers Will Middour (Atlanta, Ga.) and Kyle Rowe (Valdosta, Ga.) held the Spartans to three runs in the first eight innings, allowing Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) the opportunity to break open a 3-3 tie with the long ball in the seventh inning.

Phillips put Georgia Southern (9-11, 2-4), who had led for the first three innings, back on top with that home run. Stryker Brown (Dalton, Ga.) plated a third run in the inning with a single to center field after Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.) led off the inning with a double. He later scored on Phillips' third home run of the year. T.D. Davis (Evans, Ga.) followed with a single and scored from second base on Brown's base hit.

Rowe (2-1) allowed one run in his first inning out of the bullpen but faced just one over the minimum in the next three innings to earn the win. He was unable to close out the game after allowing two runners to reach base in the ninth inning and was lifted for Jarret Leverett (Eatonton, Ga.) (S,1). Both runs would score on a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch after Leverett had some early struggles, but he settled down to strike out Cole Harrison for the save. Dylan Hathcock (2-2) was tagged with the loss for UNCG after allowing the go ahead run to reach in the seventh inning.

UNCG (11-8, 2-4) was held to six hits but tallied five runs on seven walks and two errors. Middour allowed only two Spartan hits in the start but walked four batters. He did not allow a hit the first time through the order, but gave up two runs in the fourth inning after allowing a lead off walk. No UNCG player tallied more than one hit, but Trevor Edwards walked three times to score two of their runs.

Phillips plated four runs for the Eagles on two hits and a pair of sacrifice flies. Williams reached base in every plate appearance and scored three times on three hits and a walk. Brown and Clint Clark (Newnan, Ga.) also tallied multi-hit games and added to GSU's hit total of 12.

Georgia Southern took a quick lead with single runs in the first and third innings before UNCG tied the game with a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Williams scored both Eagle runs after recording base hits to lead off both innings. Phillips drove Williams in both times on sacrifice flies to put GSU up 2-0. The Spartans nearly batted around in the fourth inning to tie the game at 2-2 after Cambric Moye drove in both runs with a single to left field.

The Eagles got a run back in the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead before UNCG tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth inning. Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) drove in Brown, who doubled to lead off the frame, with a single through the right side of the infield to give GSU a short-lived lead. Zach Leach singled with two outs in the fifth inning to even things back up for the Spartans.

Georgia Southern returns to J.I. Clements Stadium Tuesday for a mid-week contest against Jacksonville before traveling to Furman for the weekend series.

All games can be heard on Boomer 103.7 FM and inside the stadium on 88.1 FM. Audio for all games is also available on the web and subscription video is available for all home games at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision.

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

Category: Baseball

Published on Sunday, 18 March 2012 16:47