Mederos Pitches Eagles to Win Over Davidson
4/18/2009 3:04:00 AM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Georgia Southern broke open a close game scoring seven times in the seventh inning to support Chris Mederos' (Valdosta/Gordon College) stellar outing as the Eagles defeated Davidson 12-7 Friday night (April 17) at J.I. Clements Stadium. The 27th-ranked Eagles improved to 26-9 overall and 10-4 in the Southern Conference.
Mederos recorded season-highs of nine strikeouts in eight innings pitched. The SoCon strikeout leader gave up an unearned run on four hits, improving to 8-0 on the year.
During the second inning Davidson (13-18, 8-8) used a one-out walk and single, then passed ball, to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Chris FitzPatrick hit a grounder hard enough to score the first run of the game. GS used two-out hitting in its half of the second inning to tie the score.
Will Southwell (Moultrie/Colquitt County) doubled down the right field line then Brian Pierce (Roswell/Roswell) followed with a RBI single to right.
Kevin Bowles (Statesboro/Statesboro) delivered a RBI single in the third then Ty Wright (Montrose/ABAC) hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the fourth inning making it 3-1 Eagles.
The score stayed the same until GS broke it open in the seventh. Wright doubled to start the frame. A walk to Bowles and single by Griffin Benedict (Dunwoody/St. Pius) loaded the bases. In the process, Benedict extended his hitting streak to 14 games. Eric Phillips (Carrollton/Carrollton) lined a 2-run single. Four batters later Pierce delivered a 2-run single, then Wright came up again and delivered yet another double which scored two more.
Phillip Porter (Marietta/Sprayberry) moved into a tie for the team lead hitting his sixth home run of the year, a 2-run shot in the eighth.
Davidson scored six times in the ninth inning. Seth Freeman, FitzPatrick and Will General all drove home a run on a base hit then Graham Chapman lined a 2-run single to chase Dexter Bobo (Cumming/Darton College). Charles Matthews (Athens/Spartanburg Methodist) got the final two outs to close out the win.
Only one time in the eight innings did Mederos allow more than four Wildcats up to the plate. In six of his nine starts Mederos has fanned at least eight batters. He came into the game tied for fourth nationally in wins and 36th in strikeouts per nine innings.
“I had been struggling a little lately with my command, so I decided tonight I wanted to go right at the hitters. All my pitches were working, and my defense was certainly working tonight,” said Mederos. “I saw (Wednesday night) when Andy (Moye) pitched he went right at them. I was doing that at the beginning of year, but then began to think too much. So I told myself to just go out there and throw.”
Wright went 4-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored while Phillips added three hits, two runs and two RBI. Porter also recorded two hits, scored twice and drove in two.
Pierce, who a game earlier saw his career-high 10-game hit streak end, responded with a 3-for-4 night and made a couple of spectacular defensive plays at shortstop as well. The Eagles, one game after recording just three hits in the win over Jacksonville, responded with 12 runs on 15 hits.
Thomas Middour (2-4) allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings suffering the loss. He walked one and struck out three.
Drew Gadaire and Chapman finished with two hits apiece.
Game two of the series is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon (April 18).
