Baseball Opens Conference Play at Home Against Furman
3/10/2011 10:21:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (8-5) returns home from a mid-week upset of #1 Florida to play host to Furman (6-8, 1-1) in the Eagles' Southern Conference Series opener this weekend. The series opens with a 7 p.m. game on Friday night and continues with a 2:30 p.m. contest on Saturday and a 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. GSU honors former Eagle Skipper Jack Stallings on Saturday for "Jack Stallings' Day."
The Eagles swept the season series at Furman last year including a pair of wins in a doubleheader on May 1st. GSU closed out the series with a 14-8 victory, starting a streak of seven-straight road victories. The Paladins took two out of three games in Statesboro in 2009 but Georgia Southern got revenge in the Southern Conference Tournament, winning 16-4 to reach the championship game. Kevin Bowles wrapped up the game with a towering three-run homer in the eighth inning.
Georgia Southern rebounded from a series loss to St. John's last weekend and knocked out 11 hits, took advantage of four Florida errors and threw a shutout in a 7-0 victory over the nation's top-ranked team on Tuesday, March 8th. The Eagles handed the Gators only their second loss of the season and hurled their fourth shutout of the season, the most since the 2003 season. For GSU, it marked the first win over a number-one ranked team as the Eagles defeated second-ranked Georgia Tech in 1993.
The Georgia Southern pitching staff was stellar in the win and combined for 11 strikeouts, Florida's most this season. Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.) started the game and allowed only one hit in two innings. Beck faced one over the minimum while striking out four Gators. Josh Adams (Bath, S.C.) earned the win, his third of the season, and threw three innings. Adams allowed two hits and struck out two Gators. Matt Murray (Spring City, Pa.) closed out the game to earn his second save of the season. Murray struck out five batters over the final four innings of the game. The junior pitcher struck out the side in the sixth inning and retired 11-straight batters before hitting a batter in the ninth inning.
Georgia Southern owns the second-best batting average in the Southern Conference and is one of five teams hitting over .300 in the league. Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) leads the Eagles at the plate with a .458 batting average and made his return to the field on Tuesday. Phillips robbed Florida of three hits, grabbing three line drives out of the air.
Furman opened SoCon play last weekend at Davidson and split the first two games before the third was rained out. The Wildcats' Chris Lamb shut out the Paladins with a complete-game three hitter in the series opener. Davidson scored just one run to grab the win, but it was enough after Lamb struck out 11 batters and allowed just one walk for his first win of the season.
Furman ran away with the second game of the series scoring seven runs in the first three frames to win 8-2. Will Muzika and Will Miller recorded three hits each while Reese Wade plated three runs with his first home run of the season. The Paladins fell to East Tennessee State on Tuesday 4-2 and dropped an 11-4 decision on Thursday at Presbyterian. Furman travels to Statesboro with a 1-6 road record with its lone road win coming in conference play at Davidson.
Furman leads the conference in triples with eight and is hitting .284 as a team. Miller leads the Paladins at the plate with a .408 batting average. Furman owns a 4.42 ERA as a team, and Drake Browne has made eight appearances already this season, posting a 1.80 ERA in 10.0 innings of work.
To order baseball tickets for upcoming games call the Georgia Southern Athletic Ticket Office at 800-GSU-WINS. Single games tickets are available at the gate for $8 for adults and $4 for youth (3-12).
All games can be heard on 102.9 FM in Statesboro and are also available online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision beginning 30 minutes prior to first pitch. Ryan Chambers of the Georgia Southern Radio Network will call all the action.
Fans may follow Georgia Southern Baseball by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/baseball or check in at twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics for short updates.
| Date | Pitcher | Year | L/R |
W-L-S |
ERA |
| Fri 3-11 7 pm | GS - Chris Beck | So. |
RHP |
1-0-0 |
1.89 |
| FUR - Bobby Lyne | Jr. |
RHP |
0-1-0 |
2.25 |
|
| Sat 3-12 2:30 pm | GS - Josh Adams | Jr. |
RHP |
3-1-0 |
3.68 |
| FUR - Nate Smith | So. |
LHP |
0-2-0 |
6.17 |
|
| Sun 3-13 1:30 pm | GS - Andy Moye | Sr. | RHP |
1-1-0 |
2.84 |
| FUR - Tyler Wood | Fr. | RHP |
1-1-0 |
3.31 |
