Spartans Complete Sweep with Sunday Victory
5/1/2011 9:34:00 PM | Baseball
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNC Greensboro (25-17, 14-7) completed the sweep of Georgia Southern Baseball (25-19, 13-8) with an 8-3 Sunday victory. The Eagles dropped just their second Southern Conference series and were swept for the first time this year.
GSU jumped on the Spartans early and scored in the first inning for the third-straight time but a five-run sixth inning provided the spark for the UNCG offense. The Spartans quickly erased the Eagles early lead with single runs in the first and second innings. They added on another run in the eighth before Georgia Southern got one back with a leadoff home run by Shawn Payne (Stone Mountain, Ga.) in the ninth.
Colby Hyatt (W, 7-2) went the distance for UNCG in his first-ever complete game. He faced 36 batters and had to throw 137 pitches, two shy of his career mark, to do so. Hyatt scattered 10 hits, did not issue a walk and allowed three runs for the quality start.
Joe Lower (West Palm Beach, Fla.) pitched well early on, but got into trouble in the sixth. Lower (L, 0-1) faced the minimum in the third through the fifth inning, but left the contest after allowing six runs on seven hits. The junior walked three batters and struck out one in 5.2 innings of work.
Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.) moved into the leadoff spot for the first time this season and promptly responded with back-to-back singles in his first two at-bats. A pair of ground balls to the right side drove in Williams for the first run of the game, before a two-out home run by Victor Roache (Ypsilanti, Mich.) put GSU up 2-0 after the top of the first.
After UNCG tied the game 2-2 in the second inning, both starters settled down and put zeros on the scoreboard. However, Georgia Southern did make it interesting in the third inning after putting runners on the corners with two outs, but a ground out to second base ended the threat.
The Spartans blew the game open with five runs after batting around in the sixth inning. UNCG sent 11 batters to the plate, taking advantage of five walks by the Eagle pitching staff and three hits to score the runs.
Both teams added a single run in their final inning at the plate. A leadoff double by Andrew Spleth came around to score on a single by Ray Quinones. GSU got its run on a leadoff home run by Payne to start the ninth inning.
The Eagles will play host Charleston Southern on Wednesday, May 4th, before hosting back-to-back conference series against Wofford and Davidson.
All games can be heard on Eagle 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.
