Baseball Opens Four Game Home Stand Against Davidson
GAME INFORMATION
Dates: Fri.-Sun., March 22-24
Time: 6 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m.
Site: Statesboro, Ga./J.I. Clements Stadium (3,000)
TV/Video Stream: gseagles.com/watch-listen
Play-by-Play: Ryan Chambers; Analyst: Kris Draper
Baseball Radio Network: gseagles.com/watch-listen
103.7 FM - WBMX - Metter/Statesboro
900 AM - WJLG - Savannah
1370 AM - WLOP - Jesup
Play-by-Play: Ryan Chambers; Analyst: Kris Draper
Live Stats: gseagles.com
Twitter Updates: @GSAthletics/@GSScores
Series: Ga. Southern leads 79-18 (97 games)
Statesboro: Ga. Southern leads 26-3
Davidson: Ga. Southern leads 26-9
Neutral Site: Ga. Southern leads 4-2
Unknown: Ga. Southern leads 8-0
First Meeting: 1954 - W, 3-1
Last Meeting: 4/07/12 - Davidson, N.C. - W, 7-6
Last Series Win: 4/6-7/12 - Davidson
Last Series Loss: 4/24-25/99 - Statesboro
Streak: Ga. Southern, 21 wins
STORY LINES
Georgia Southern (13-7, 5-1 SoCon) returns home to host Davidson (8-11, 4-5 SoCon) in a three-game Southern Conference series starting Friday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and the series concludes with a 2:30 p.m. contest on Saturday and a 1:30 p.m. game on Sunday.
Friday will be movie character night and all fans are encouraged to dress up as their favorite movie character to take part in all of the promotions. Saturday is Strike Out Leukemia and all money raised from money ball will be donated to the Leukemia Foundation. Sunday is Sunday Funday and all Junior Eagle Club members can run the bases after the game.
All three games can be watched for free at gseagles.com/watch-listen and heard on the Georgia Southern Radio Network.
Georgia Southern will send LHP Sam Howard (3-2, 4.55) to the mound Friday and LHP Jason Richman (3-1, 6.00) will start Saturday. The Eagles have not named a starter for Sunday.
The Eagles currently sit in first place in the Southern Conference with a 5-1 record and are off to their best conference start since 2005 when they swept Davidson and East Tennessee State to open SoCon play.
Tuesday’s win over #11 Georgia Tech was GSU’s fourth win against a ranked opponent this season. The Eagles hold nearly half of the SoCon’s nine wins against ranked opponents.
Georgia Southern has won eight of their last 10 games and three-straight contests. The Eagles also hold a five-game home winning streak.
GSU holds a 79-18 edge in the 97 game all-time series against Davidson. The Eagles have a 26-3 advantage in Statesboro and have won 21-straight games.
T.D. Davis has hit three of his six home runs in the past five games. Davis has already surpassed his home run total from a year ago.
T.D. Davis, Chase Griffin and Ben Morgan have combined for 13 of the team’s 16 home runs this season.
Freshman Evan Challenger, who hails from Mount Dora, Fla., was born in Asheville, N.C.
WATCH & LISTEN
All Georgia Southern home games will be video streamed on gseagles.com/watch-listen for free. The stream will carry the Georgia Southern Radio Network’s feed with long-time play-by-play voice Ryan Chambers and color commentator Kris Draper on the call.
The Radio Network will also air the entire baseball schedule on 103.7 FM in Metter/Statesboro, 900 AM in Savannah and 1370 AM in Jesup.
MID-WEEK RECAP
Georgia Southern never surrendered an early lead and quieted the nation’s top offense to earn a 5-4 mid-week win over #11 Georgia Tech.
T.D. Davis hit what proved to be the game-winning home run in the seventh inning and tallied two hits and two RBIs in the contest.
The Eagles’ pitching staff never allowed multiple runs in the contests and stranded nine Yellow Jacket runners.
Matt McCall earned the win in relief of Evan Challenger after allowing one run on three hits over four innings.
Justin Hess struck out Daniel Palka to end the game and record his second save of the season. Hess allowed one run on three hits over 1.2 innings.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern is 12-7, 5-1 after 20 games this season. A year ago the Eagles were 9-11, 2-4 after 20 games.
Justin Hess needs to throw just 2.0 more innings to reach 200 career innings pitched. He is also 11 strikeouts from 200 career strikeouts.
Robbie Dodds, who started the season on the bench, is hitting a team best .400 with a double, two home runs and 11 RBIs.
Matt McCall is 2-0 with one save and a 1.59 ERA over his last five appearances.
Evan Challenger has not allowed an inherited runner to score in seven tries. Challenger stranded five runners in two appearances against Samford.
The Eagles have recorded at least one extra base hit in every game this season.
Georgia Southern is 10-1 when scoring six or more runs and is 9-1 when allowing five runs or less.
The Eagles are 11-1 when leading after the fourth inning and 9-0 when leading after six frames.
GSU is 10-2 when Arthur Owens starts and 10-1 when he is the team’s designated hitter.
Georgia Southern ranks 28th in total attendance (22,214) and ranks 30th in average attendance (1,708) in the nation.
In his 14th season at the helm of Georgia Southern’s program, head coach Rodney Hennon is the second winningest active coach in the SoCon.
DAVIDSON SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern holds a 79-18 edge in the 97 game series history.
Sunday’s contest will be the 100th meeting between Georgia Southern and Davidson.
The Eagles hold a 21 game winning streak and are 26-3 all-time in Statesboro.
The series opened in 1954 with a 3-1 GSU win.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon has never lost a series to the Wildcats. The last series loss came on April 24-25, 1999. The Eagles have won 13-straight season series.
The Davidson win in the series came on March 31, 2006. The Wildcats shut out the Eagles 6-0 in the series opener.
A YEAR AGO
A year ago, Georgia Southern swept Davidson for the sixth-straight season and extended their series winning streak to 21 games.
Michael Burruss led the team with a .467 batting average and six RBIs in the series a year ago. Kyle Rowe picked up two wins and threw 3.1 scoreless innings as the pitching staff posted a 2.67 ERA in the series.
Chris Beck tossed a complete game in the series opener and earned his four win of the season in an 8-3 Eagle victory. Michael Burruss totaled three hits and scored two runs in the opener.
Justin Hess earned a no decision after allowing one unearned run over six innings in game two. The Eagles scored four runs in the ninth inning to rally from a 3-2 deficit.
Georgia Southern scored two runs over the final two innings to come from behind a second-straight time in game three and won 7-6. Chase Griffin recorded three hits, scored two runs and tallied two RBIs in the series finale.
DAVIDSON CONNECTION
Assistant coach Chris Moore spent three seasons (2003-05) as an assistant coach at Davidson.
Junior RHP Will Middour’s brother, Thomas Middour, played four seasons for the Wildcats.
FIRST INNING SUCCESS
Georgia Southern has scored a first-inning run in 14 of its 20 games (.700) this season and is 9-5 when scoring in the first inning.
The Eagles hold a 26-11 run advantage in the first inning, their largest advantage in any inning this season.
GSU is 9-3 when scoring first and is 8-5 when leading after the first inning.
A year ago the Eagles scored 12 less runs (32-44) in the first inning than their opponents and went 13-8 when scoring in the first inning.
MANNING THE HOT CORNER
In 12 starts at third base this season, Brent Pugh has helped the Eagles to a 9-3 record and a 45-28 record over 73 career starts at the hot corner.
Georgia Southern has posted a .616 winning percentage with Brent Pugh at third base, compared to a .520 percentage (51-47) when he doesn’t man the hot corner.
In his third season in the program, Brent Pugh has yet to make an opening day start but has started when the Eagles needed him the most. Pugh was the starting third baseman in the 2011 and 2012 Southern Conference Championship games and in the 2011 Columbia Regional.
UPPERCLASSMEN TURNAROUND
Ben Morgan entered his junior campaign hitting .240 with no home runs over his first two years in the program. After 20 games this season, he has already upped his career average to .258.
Morgan hit three home runs through the first nine games this season and added his fourth on March 16th at Samford. Overall he is hitting .333 with five doubles and 16 RBIs.
Morgan posted averages of .239 and .243 over his first two seasons.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
- Category: Baseball
- Published on Thursday, 21 March 2013 14:16
