Baseball Plays Host to a Pair of Jacksonville Teams
4/11/2011 4:06:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern (19-13) will look to pick up win number 20 in a pair of midweek games against Jacksonville and North Florida. The Eagles will play host to the Dolphins (20-12) on Tuesday and North Florida (20-12) on Wednesday. First pitch for both games is set for 6 p.m. at J.I. Clements Stadium.
Tuesday is East Georgia Regional Medical Center Night. All employees of the hospital who present their ID receive $1 admission to the game. Chick-fil-A, Domino's Pizza, Moe's Southwest Grill, Sonny's Bar-B-Q and Subway are providing Eagle Baseball fans with delicious food for Restaurant Night at J.I. Clements Stadium on Wednesday night.
Georgia Southern will be looking to split the season series with both teams, having lost 4-2 to Jacksonville and 11-3 to North Florida earlier this year. Victor Roache (Ypsilanti, Mich.) started the Eagles' scoring against the Dolphins with a solo home run in the middle innings before GSU loaded the bases in the ninth inning. Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) drove in another run with an infield single, but Chris Anderson picked up a strikeout and a fly out to end the game.
Georgia Southern played UNF in its first road game of the year back on March 2nd. The Ospreys banged out 14 hits and forced three Eagle errors to score their 11 runs. Two bright spots for GSU were Eric Phillips' (Carrollton, Ga.) perfect three-for-three day at the plate and Tom Richardson's (Lilburn, Ga.) two RBIs.
GSU holds a slim 61-58 advantage in the all-time series with Jacksonville but have won six out of the last eight meetings. The Eagles swept last season's meetings and split the season series in 2009. The North Florida series is younger and Georgia Southern leads 6-3 in nine all-time meetings. The two teams met for the first time in 2006 with the Ospreys coming out on top 7-2, but the Eagles have won five out of the last seven contests to take the three game series advantage.
The Eagles are coming off a doubleheader split with Marshall on Sunday, April 10th. Georgia Southern scored a run and led 1-0 in game one on Friday, but after four batters the contest was suspended until Sunday. GSU tacked on two more runs in the third inning and four more in the ninth to take a 9-3 win. Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) earned the win (1-2) in relief of Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.), who did not throw a pitch due to the weather situation. Hess allowed just two earned runs on seven hits in a season-high seven innings to pick up his first win of the season. Matt Murray (Spring City, Pa.) came on in relief in the eighth inning and threw the final two innings.
Marshall opened game two by scoring a single run in each of the first five innings and survived a Georgia Southern rally to win 5-3. The Thundering Herd tallied 12 hits to the Eagles' seven, but Marshall committed two errors that led to all three of the Eagles' runs.
GSU got a single run in the fourth inning off a throwing error by the second baseman. A fielder's choice by Burruss and a balk put a runner on second before the error allowed him to score with two outs. The 5-1 Marshall lead remained until the ninth inning when Cochrane homered with two outs to cut the lead to 5-3. Roache scored on Cochrane's second home run of the day, after reaching base on an error by the third baseman.
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).
Georgia Southern Baseball games can be heard live on Eagle 102.9 FM and are also available online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision with broadcasts 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.
