UNCG Evens Series with Baseball in High-Scoring Affair

STATESBORO, Ga. - On a day in which 21 combined runs crossed the plate on 25 hits, UNCG evened the series with the Georgia Southern Baseball team with a 12-9 victory on Saturday. The Spartans got yeoman's work out of their bullpen and scored seven runs in the first three innings to take an early lead. Game three's start time has been pushed up an hour to 12:30 p.m. due to expected late afternoon showers.

Georgia Southern (8-11, 1-4) battled to within one run and trailed 7-6 after the fourth inning, but UNCG (11-7, 2-3) outscored the Eagles 5-3 over the final five frames. Zach Furl (2-0) was the first out of the bullpen for the Spartans and earned the win in relief of start Corey Taylor. Furl allowed a hit and struck out a batter in 0.2 innings and combined with four other pitchers to allow three runs on five hits in the final six innings. Taylor gave up six runs on four hits and walked four in three innings before being lifted in the fourth inning.

Lloyed Enzor capped off a three-run first inning with his first of two home runs on the day and drove in Thomas Troelstrup, who doubled in the first run of the game, with two outs. Troelstrup doubled in two more runs in another three-run second inning. Eagles' starter Josh Stevenson (Social Circle, Ga.) (0-1) left after just two innings and allowed four earned runs on five hits. Josh Adams (Bath, S.C.) pitched the final four frames and did not allow a walk. He surrendered two runs on four hits and struck out two batters on 67 pitches.

Georgia Southern posted as many hits as they had runs but walked six times and took advantage of four Spartan errors to give them extra base runners. Chase Griffin (Leesburg, Ga.) accounted for a third of the hits in his first three-hit game of his young career. He opened his day at the plate with a three-run homer in the second inning to keep the Eagles within reach of UNCG and added singles in the fourth and eighth innings. T.D. Davis (Evans, Ga.) returned to the lineup for the first time in a week and went two-for-four including a solo home run in the the ninth inning to cut the lead to three runs.

Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.), who went hitless for the second time in the series, manufactured his own run in the first inning after walking with two outs. He stole two bases and crossed the plate after an errant throw to third base sailed wide of the bag.

After UNCG added a single unearned run in the third inning, the Eagles came back with two runs in the fourth inning. A pair of walks to lead off the frame both came around to score. Griffin plated the first with a single to center field, and the second run scored on a sacrifice fly by Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.).

The Spartans scored three runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings to break open a one-run lead. Enzor pulled his second two-run homer off the scoreboard in left field to score two runs in the fifth inning and a lead off walk crossed the plate in the sixth inning. Troelstrup tallied his fourth RBI of the day in the sixth and scored Cole Harrison, who reached third base on a stolen base and wild pitch.

GSU got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the sixth inning after Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) reached on an error. Phillips plated the run with a sacrifice fly to right after Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) moved Morgan to third with a base hit.

The Eagles added another run in the eighth inning, but it came after Trevor Edwards drove in two runs for the Spartans with a homer to right field in the top half of the frame. Tyler Avera (Baxley, Ga.) scored the run on a wild pitch after leading off the inning with an infield base hit.

The three-game series concludes tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. Will Middour (Atlanta, Ga.) (0-2, 2.89) returns to the mound for his first start of 2012 and will square off with Max Povse (1-2, 4.15) on Sunday.

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 Saturday, 17 March 2012 19:26