Eagles Return Home for Three-Game Series with St. John's

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (6-3) returns home from their first road game to host previously ranked St. John's (3-3) in a three-game weekend series. First pitch in the series is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, and the following two games are set for Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

GSU will face St. John's for the first time in program history. The Red Storm won their sixth Big East Tournament last season and played in the Charlottesville Regional a year ago. Four players were selected in the MLB Draft after STJ set school records in runs, hits, doubles and RBIs.

The Eagles are returning home from an 11-3 mid-week loss to North Florida. The Ospreys opened the game with eight runs in the first three innings. They tallied six hits and scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning and added four more runs in the third inning.

Two bright spots for GSU were Eric Phillips' (Carrollton, Ga.) perfect day at the plate and Tom Richardson's (Lilburn, Ga.) pair of two-out RBIs. Phillips walked, singled twice and tripled in the game. The junior recorded his first start of the season as the designated hitter and scored a run on a Victor Roache (Ypsilanti, Mich.) ground-out in the eighth inning.

Richardson drove in a pair of two-out runs and tallied a hit in back-to-back plate appearances in the middle three frames. He singled in Georgia Southern's first run of the game in the fourth inning. The junior catcher doubled in Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.), who was the first of two hits to lead off the sixth inning.

Georgia Southern has won both weekend series so far this season but will face a tough St. John's squad that was picked to finish second in the Big East prior to the season. The Red Storm won their first two games of the season in the Big East-Big Ten Challenge in Florida before falling 8-7 to Ohio State in 11 innings.

St. John's last played at Georgia Tech last weekend and was shut out in the first two games 13-0, 5-0. The Red Storm bounced back on Sunday for a 13-3 win in the series finale, avoiding the three-game sweep.

STJ's sophomore Jeremy Baltz, who hit 24 home runs enroute to being named a Freshman All-American, is still in search of his first bomb of 2011. Baltz is hitting the ball well and leads the team with a .409 batting average, two doubles, a triple and 10 RBIs.

To order baseball tickets for upcoming games call the Georgia Southern Athletic Ticket Office at 800-GSU-WINS. Single games tickets are available at the gate for $8 for adults and $4 for youth (3-12).

All games this weekend can be heard on either 102.9 FM or 107.3 FM in Statesboro and are also available online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision beginning 30 minutes prior to first pitch. Ryan Chambers of the Georgia Southern Radio Network will have the call live from J. I. Clements Stadium all weekend.

Fans may follow Georgia Southern Baseball by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/baseball or check in at twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics for short updates.

Category: Baseball

Published on Thursday, 03 March 2011 13:51