Evans Paces Eagles into Final Round
10/19/2010 3:54:00 AM | Men's Golf
BATON ROUGE, La. - Junior Lewis Gruber (Tallahassee, Fla.) began the first day of the David Toms Intercollegiate for Georgia Southern with an hole-in-one on hole number-five (Gruber's second hole of the day due to a shotgun start). The Eagles would finish the day with a second-round 289, eight strokes behind 10th-place Louisiana Tech. LSU leads its own tournament, carding a 17-under 559 at the par-72 6,849 yard Country Club of Louisiana
"We stubbed our toe again today," said Head Coach Larry Mays. "We had a great practice round and perfect playing conditions but just couldn't record great scores. I'm proud of the guys for battling back in the second round. We gave up some shots going down the final stretch but this round may help us gain confidence going into the final round. We have to keep the mentality we showed in the second round and go to battle in the final round tomorrow."
The second round saw four Eagles move up in the individual standings. The most notable was freshman Will Evans (McDonough, Ga.). Evans' 2-under 70 on the final 18 holes of the day, which included four birdies (three on the back-nine), moved him up 13 spots to a tie for 33rd place.
Senior Matt Deal (Statesboro, Ga.) started his second round of play with a birdie and finished with two others to sign for an even-72. Deal enters the final round in a tie for 45th. Gruber started the second round with a birdie and finished with four total, firing three straight on a par-5 (#15), par-4 (#16) and a par-3 (#17), to help sign for a 1-over 73 that places him just out of the 'Top 50' in a tie for 53rd.
Senior Logan Blondell (Lakeland, Fla.), who finished second a week ago at the Mizuno Savannah Intercollegiate, battled back with three birdies of his own in the second round to finish with a 2-over 74. Redshirt-Freshman Thomas Sharkey (Helensburgh, Scotland) mirrored Gruber's last four holes on the back nine, shooting three birdies on holes 15, 16, and 17. Sharkey finished the day with a 5-over 77.
Georgia Southern will be paired with Rice and LSU for tomorrow's final round. Lewis Gruber will tee off first on hole-10 for the Eagles at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET).
Fans can get up-to-date scores for the David Toms Intercollegiate by visiting www.golfstat.com and can view the tournament website at www.LSUsports.net.
