Baseball Falls in Series Finale against St. John's
3/6/2011 11:16:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - St. John's (5-4) took the series win with another stellar pitching effort, winning 7-3 over Georgia Southern (7-5) on Sunday afternoon, March 6th. Brendan Lobban allowed only one run in 6.1 innings, and the Red Storm scored single runs in the first three innings to come back from a 4-3 loss on Friday night for its first series win of the year.
Steve Cochrane (Mooresville, N.C.) drove in two of the Eagles' three runs and launched his third home run of the year. The senior first baseman picked up RBIs in his final two plate appearances and plated a run in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly.
The top five batters in Georgia Southern's order combined for seven of the Eagles' eight hits. Freshman Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) had the only hit outside of the top half of the lineup, a double to lead off the seventh inning. The Eagles used the double and a two-out RBI single from Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) to score a run in the seventh inning.
St. John's opened the game with runs in the first three frames and held Georgia Southern scoreless until the sixth inning. A two-out walk by Joe Panik in the first inning led to the first run of the ballgame. Panik stole second base and scored on a single by Paul Karmas.
Back-to-back hits in the second inning plated a second run. Joe Witkowski singled in Matt Wessinger, who doubled with one out in the inning. The Red Storm used a hit by pitch, a double and a ground out to drive in the third run of the contest. Panik was hit by Andy Moye (Alpharetta, Ga.), who started the game for the Eagles, and scored on a ground ball hit up the first base line.
Moye was tagged with his first loss of the 2011 campaign after allowing three runs on six hits in four innings of work. Lobban, who started for St. John's, earned his second win of the year after allowing one earned run and six hits in 6.1 innings.
Georgia Southern broke open the shutout with a single run in the sixth inning and cut the lead to just two runs late in the game. The Eagles scored in three-straight innings, but the Red Storm posted two runs in both the seventh and eighth to extend its advantage to four runs.
GSU hits the road again, bound for the state of Florida on Tuesday. The Eagles will face the top-ranked Florida Gators at 7 p.m. Georgia Southern returns home to J.I. Clements Stadium following the single game to open Southern Conference play against Furman on Friday night at 7 p.m.
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 this week 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 have the call all week long.
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.
