Eagle Baseball News and Notes
9/18/2009 1:54:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The 2009 Georgia Southern Baseball recruiting class was ranked among the nation's best, according to Collegiate Baseball. The Eagles, ranked 37th, were the only Southern Conference team ranked in the 'Top 40'.
With 15 newcomers joining 19 returning players, the Eagles are aiming for back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Regionals. The 2009 squad finished 42-17 overall, earned a national-ranking, finished 20-8 in the Southern Conference regular season (second place) and swept their way through the SoCon Tournament field to win another championship.
Five of the incoming Eagles were selected in last June's Major League Baseball draft: Victor Roache (25th round/Detroit Tigers); Shawn Payne (29th/Los Angeles Dodgers); Chris Beck (35th/Cleveland Indians), Arthur Owens (38th/Kansas City Royals) and Ryan Sadler (39th/Minnesota Twins).
Senior Dexter Bobo was selected in the 44th round but will return for the 2010 season. Rising sophomore Eric Phillips returns after earning Freshman All-America honors last season. Phillips, Matt Murray and Colin Snow were all named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team.
The Eagles started fall practice last Wednesday (Sept. 16).
In other Baseball news...
-- Former All-SoCon relief pitcher A.J. Battisto and his Double-A Jacksonville Suns team took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Southern League championship series against the Tennessee Smokies. The Suns, 2009 South Division Champs, can close out the series Friday night (Sept. 18) at 7:15 p.m. ET at Smokies Park in Kodak, Tenn. Live radio coverage will be available online at minorleaguebaseball.com, jaxsuns.com and 930thefox.com.
Battisto, who was called up to Double-A during the summer and even made one appearance in Triple-A New Orleans, owns a 1-0 record in 11 relief appearances for the Suns. Battisto has struck out 10 and walked five in 13.1 innings while limiting opponents to a .201 batting average.
-- The 2009 Eagles will receive their Southern Conference championship rings during halftime of the Georgia Southern-Western Carolina football game this Saturday (Sept. 19). GS defeated Davidson (4-3 in 11 innings), Appalachian State (6-5), Furman (16-4) and Elon (7-3) to sweep its way through to a SoCon Tournament championship.
-- First Team All-SoCon picks and 2009 All-Americans Griffin Benedict (San Diego Padres) and Chris Mederos (Oakland As) were both invited to their respective team's fall instructional league teams. After just 14 games in the minors, Benedict earned a brief call-up to Triple-A Portland but finished the year at Eugene (short season Class-A) batting .259 with 12 RBI and 12 runs scored in 30 games. Mederos went 3-1 with a 2.14 ERA pitching for the AZL Athletics in the Arizona Rookie League.
-- Flint Wipke, who helped the Eagles to a 2005 SoCon Tournament runner-up finish, ended the year with the Triple-A Salt Lake.
