Baseball Unable to Complete Sweep of Elon
4/24/2011 10:42:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (24-16, 13-5) was unable to complete the sweep of Elon (29-16, 15-6) after falling 9-0 on Sunday, April 24th at J.I. Clements Stadium. The Eagles took the series, however, with wins in the first two contests.
Dylan Clark kept the GSU hitters at bay for six innings to earn his first career victory. Clark improved to 1-3 on the year after scattering five hits and striking out two batters. John Brebbia and Mitch Conner combined to throw the final three frames. Brebbia did not allow a hit and struck out two in his two innings of work.
Georgia Southern put runners in scoring position in the first two innings, but did not have another runner reach second base until Garren Palmer's (Dalton, Ga.) two-out double in the ninth inning. The Eagles put runners on second and third in the bottom half of the first, but could not bring them home when Clark struck out the side.
Palmer led off the second inning with a base hit and Tom Richardson (Lilburn, Ga.) followed with a single through the right side to put runners on the corners without an out. However, Elon got out of the jam with two fielder's choices and a runner interference call. The Phoenix retired GSU in order over the next five innings before the hit by Palmer in the ninth. Palmer finished the day with two hits and was the only Eagle to have a multi-hit day.
Josh Adams (Bath, S.C.) fell to 5-6 on the year after allowing three runs on three hits over two innings. Adams also walked two batters, struck out one and faced 10 batters on the day. Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) and Jarret Leverett (Eatonton, Ga.) pitched the next 4.2 innings and allowed a combined four earned runs on seven hits. Colin Snow (Alpharetta, Ga.) pitched a scoreless inning, allowing a walk and a run. Will Middour (Atlanta, Ga.) pitched the final frame allowing a solo shot to Sebastian Gomez while striking out Garrett Koster to end the inning.
A lead off home run by Jake Luce started the scoring for Elon. The Phoenix went on to add a single run in the second inning and four more in the third for a 6-0 lead after the first three frames. Elon added three more runs in the contest with single runs crossing the plate in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings to take the final lead of 9-0.
The leadoff batter reached five times for Elon and scored four times. A walk of Gomez to start the second inning came around to cost the Eagles as he scored on a single by Eric Serra. The first four batters in the third inning reached base and came around to cross the plate for the Phoenix's big inning.
Serra led off the sixth inning and scored a two-out run on Cyle Rasmus' second single of the game. Neal Pritchard tucked Elon's second home run in the contest over the wall and into the left field corner. A solo shot in the ninth inning wrapped up the Phoenix's scoring.
Georgia Southern will be on the road all next week and will face Kennesaw State and UNC Greensboro at their respective home ballparks. The Eagles will face the Owls on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will travel to Greensboro for a three-game Southern Conference series which starts Friday, April 29th at 6 p.m.
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.
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