Baseball Uses Three Sacrifice Flies to Complete Sweep of Davidson
5/17/2011 1:08:00 AM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (30-21, 17-10) took advantage of three Davidson (18-29, 8-21) errors and used three sacrifice flies to complete a three-game sweep of the Wildcats with a 5-2 win on Monday, April 16th. The Eagles picked up their 30th win in the process, extending a streak of 30+ win seasons for the program to 12 under Head Coach Rodney Hennon.
GSU doesn't have a lot of time to savor the victory as it plays the first of a four game road trip in less than 24 hours. The Eagles square off with Charleston Southern tomorrow, April 17th, at 2 p.m. before heading to Boone, N.C., for the final Southern Conference series which starts on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Georgia Southern spread out its scoring, tallying single runs in the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh innings. Three sacrifice flies, an error and a RBI single from Steve Cochrane (Mooresville, N.C.) drove in the five runs. GSU did a solid job manufacturing base runners and runs with Cochrane and Shawn Payne (Stone Mountain, Ga.) tallying the only multi-hit days.
Matt Murray (Spring City, Pa.) made his first start of the season on the mound and had a solid day. Murray allowed eight baserunners including two in his final inning of work, the fourth. He left after 3.2 innings, allowing only one run on five hits and struck out four.
Joe Lower (West Palm Beach, Fla.) recorded the final out in the fourth to strand Wildcat runners on the corners and seven-straight before hitting a batter in the seventh inning. Lower (W, 1-2) earned the win after 2.2 innings of hitless work. Will Middour (Atlanta, Ga.) pitched a scoreless inning and a third for his second save of the year with both coming against Davidson.
Ryan Overcash allowed four hits and four runs in his four innings of work. Overcash (L, 2-6) walked only two and struck out one in his start. The Davidson bullpen stitched together four solid innings and allowed one run. Andy Bass threw two hitless innings to close out the game for the Wildcat, giving them a fighting chance.
In the first inning a triple by Payne in his first at-bat lead to a quick run after Victor Roache (Ypsilanti, Mich.) drove him in the next at-bat with a sacrifice fly. The Wildcats tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning with a pair of doubles. James Cerbie doubled with one out and scored on a two-out double down the left-field line off the bat of Sam Payne. An one-out walk came around to score in the third inning after a two-out error extended the inning, giving Georgia Southern the lead for good.
Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) led off the fourth inning with a single and reached third base on a sacrifice bunt by Brent Pugh (Atlanta, Ga.) and a balk. Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.) drove the run across on the second sacrifice fly for a 3-1 GSU lead.
Two more leadoff runners for the Eagles scored in the fifth and seventh innings. A Payne single came around to score on the third sacrifice fly of the game, this one off the bat of Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.). Georgia Southern's fifth run scored on Cochrane's second single of the ball game after having reached base on a fielding error.
Davidson pulled to within three runs with two hits and a throwing error, scoring an unearned run in the eighth inning. Drew Gadaire led off the inning with a hit but a fielder's choice erased him from the base path. A throwing error on the play sent Danny Weiss down to second base and he later scored on a two-out single from Matt Ray.
All Georgia Southern Baseball 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.
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