Baseball Falls to North Florida in Mid-Week Contest

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (6-3) fell in their first road game of the 2011 season at North Florida (5-3) 11-3. The Ospreys banged out 14 hits and forced three Eagle errors to score their 11 runs. Two bright spots for GSU were Eric Phillips' (Carrollton, Ga.) perfect day at the plate and Tom Richardson's (Lilburn, Ga.) two 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.

UNF's sophomore Marshal Rosenberger made his first career start and was stellar in his first appearance, allowing five hits and two runs in 5.2 innings to pick up his first ever win.

North Florida opened the game with eight runs in the first three innings. The Ospreys tallied six hits and scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning and added four more runs in the third inning.

Georgia Southern finally got on the board in the fourth inning, scoring a run on three hits. Phillips led off the inning with a bunt single and moved to second base on a hit by Steve Cochrane (Mooresville, N.C.). Richardson drove in the run with a base hit to left field.

The Osprey's got the run back with a solo home run from Dahl in the bottom half of the fourth inning, but the Eagles added their second run of the game in the sixth inning.

Jarret Leverett (Eatonton, Ga.) started the game for the Eagles and was tagged with his second loss of the season. He was replaced in the second inning by Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.). Hess faced the minimum in the second inning of work but got in trouble in the third inning. Andy Moye (Alpharetta, Ga.) pitched a pair of scoreless innings in the middle innings and struck out three batters.

North Florida added two unearned runs on a pair of GSU errors in the eighth inning to push their run total to double digits.

The Eagles will return home for a three-game series with St. John's this weekend. The series opens Friday at J.I. Clements Stadium at 6 p.m. 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 can be heard on Georgia Eagle Media family of stations 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 Wednesday, 02 March 2011 22:30