Baseball Completes Sweep of College of Charleston
4/5/2009 4:24:00 AM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? For the third straight game Georgia Southern's offense erupted, compiling 20 runs on 19 hits as the Eagles completed a three-game Southern Conference sweep of College of Charleston 20-8 on Sunday afternoon (April 5). The Eagles improved to 21-7 overall and 7-3 in the SoCon.
After falling behind 13-4 in the bottom of the seventh Friday night and eventually winning 15-14 in 14 innings, the Eagles kept the offense rolling. GS scored 51 runs on 60 hits (10 doubles, 1 triple, 11 home runs) in the series, completing the program's first-ever regular season sweep of the Cougars.
The Eagles jumped on the board quickly in the first. Griffin Benedict (Dunwoody/St. Pius) hit a sacrifice fly, Phillip Porter (Marietta/Sprayberry) lined a RBI triple and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Charleston (20-8, 10-5) got those three runs back in its half of the second inning, but the Eagles plated six runs in the second all with two outs.
Kevin Bowles (Statesboro/Statesboro) ripped a 2-run double, Benedict lined a 2-run homer then two batters later Porter smacked a two-run shot for a 9-3 lead.
Junior Jake Brown (Forest Hill, MD/Pitt CC) came on in relief of Matt Murray (Spring City, PA/Owen Roberts) in the third, who was scheduled to throw only a set amount of pitches. Brown shut down the Cougars the rest of the way, the only blip a 3-run ninth inning by Charleston.
“They (Charleston) have been hitting the ball all weekend, but all we had to do is make pitches. (Pitching) Coach (Jason) Beverlin told us to pitch them inside. They have long swings that opened up the outside with the breaking stuff then come inside with fastballs,” said Brown. “This is a big sweep for us.”
Eric Phillips (Carrollton/Carrollton) hammered a 3-run homer in the fourth, then Roman Grimaldi (Duluth/North Florida CC) and Matt Miller (Canton/Woodstock) hit solo homers in the fifth. In the seventh Brian Pierce (Roswell/Roswell) hit a RBI double. A.J. Wirnsberger (Tuscaloosa, AL/Paul Bryant) came on to pinch-hit and slammed a 2-run homer down the right field line.
During the eighth Chris Banker (Martinez/Chattahoochee Valley CC) lined a RBI single, Pierce followed with a run-scoring double and Wirnsberger delivered a RBI single.
Brandon Sizemore and Joash Brodin homered in the ninth for the final margin.
Porter finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored and career-high matching three RBI. Ty Wright (Montrose/ABAC), Bowles, Wirnsberger (batting in the two spot), Benedict, Grimaldi and Pierce had two hits apiece. Benedict, Wirnsberger and Phillips joined Porter with three RBI in the win. Georgia Southern held a 19-12 edge in hits.
Brown (2-2) allowed four runs on nine hits in 6.1 innings. He walked two and struck out three. Murray allowed four runs on three hits in 2.2 innings.
Corey Ashner, making his first start, was charged for nine runs on eight hits in 1.2 innings, falling to 1-1. Cole Rakar had three of the team's hits.
The Eagles begin a six-game road trip on Tuesday night (April 7). GS will face nationally-ranked Georgia Tech twice in Atlanta, the first game a scheduled 6 p.m. first pitch with Wednesday set for 4 p.m.
