Balanced Attack Leads Eagles to 16-7 Win
4/4/2009 4:25:00 AM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Every Georgia Southern scored a run and had a base hit - and for the second straight game eight players (all starters) had a multi-hit game - as the Eagles jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 16-7 win over College of Charleston Saturday night. With the win, Georgia Southern (20-7 overall, 6-3 SoCon) captured its first regular season series win over the Cougars since 2003.
Charleston threatened in the first with runners on the corners against Andy Moye (Alpharetta/Alpharetta), but the sophomore came back with one of his six strikeouts to end the threat.
This game, the Eagles were the ones to strike first. Ty Wright (Montrose/ABAC) led off with a single, stole second and scored on Griffin Benedict's (Dunwoody/St. Pius) RBI single. Benedict stole second and scored on Phillip Porter's (Marietta/Sprayberry) RBI single.
A seven-run second inning put the Eagles ahead by nine. Jonathan King (Athens, TN/Young Harris) started with a single and would score on a wild pitch. Brian Pierce (Roswell/Roswell) singled and scored on Benedict's run-scoring single. Roman Grimaldi (Duluth/North Florida CC) singled and scored when Eric Phillips (Carrollton/Carrollton) drove home a run. Porter brought home two on a single to left, matching his career RBI high in the first two innings. Later in the inning King added a 2-run double.
Charleston (20-7, 10-4) got two runs back on groundouts in the third, however, in the fourth, Will Southwell (Moultrie/Colquitt County) hit a 2-run blast with two down making it 11-2.
Hutson Dodds and Brandon Sizemore hit 2-run homers in the fifth to chase Moye. Freshman Colin Snow (Alpharetta/Alpharetta) came on in relief and got the final two out on just two pitches. Kevin Bowles (Statesboro/Statesboro) got a run back thanks to a RBI double then Benedict followed with a 2-run blast to right field for a 14-6 advantage.
Wright hit a RBI single in the sixth and Matt Miller (Canton/Woodstock) added a RBI single in the seventh.
Meanwhile, Snow (2-1) cruised along giving up a solo home run in the eighth. He scattered five hits in 4.2 innings, striking out four to no walks allowed. Moye was charged for six runs on six hits in 4.1 innings, walking one and striking out six.
Benedict finished with three hits, three runs scored and four RBI while King matched his career-high of three hits. Phillips scored three times. For the second straight game the Eagles recorded 20-plus hits (season-high 21 hits in game one/20 game two).
David Peterson (5-1) was charged for nine runs on nine hits in 1.1 innings. Leadoff hitter Clay McCord had four of the team's 11 hits and Sizemore drove in three runs.
The Eagles go for the series sweep on Sunday afternoon (April 5), first pitch scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
