Baseball Heads to Columbia Regional as #4 Seed
5/30/2011 5:03:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team (36-24) travels to Columbia, S.C., as the number-four seed in Columbia Regional and faces the defending national champion South Carolina (45-14) Friday, June 3rd at 7 p.m. The Gamecocks are the number-one seed in the the regional and the number-four overall seed in the nation.
GSU has never played in a regional in Columbia, but has played three regionals in the state of South Carolina with all three taking place at Clemson, S.C. However, Georgia Southern is familiar with South Carolina, having faced the Gamecocks in 2010 and 2009 in mid-week games. Both contests went to extra innings and were won by the Gamecocks. The Eagles fell 8-5 in 13 innings in 2010 after Brady Thomas hit a three-run triple in the top of the 13th at J.I. Clements Stadium in Statesboro. The Gamecocks won the 2009 meeting 2-1 on a 10th inning walk-off hit by DeAngelo Mack.
The two other teams in the regional, two-seed Stetson (41-18) and the three-seed North Carolina State (34-25), will face each other in the other opening round game of the regional.
GSU won the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament after a 1-0 shutout of Samford in the title game. Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.) tossed his second complete game of the season and earned his second win of the tournament with a stellar three-hit performance. Beck (9-4, 3.21) set a SoCon Tournament record with 22 combined strikeouts over his two starts.
Senior Andy Moye (Alpharetta, Ga.) will start game one of the regional to give Beck an extra day to rest after his masterful run in the conference tournament that netted him the Most Outstanding Player Award. Moye (7-1, 3.21) has never faced the Gamecocks, but has postseason experience under his belt. The senior pitcher is one of three Eagles, Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.), Colin Snow (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Moye, who played in the 2009 Fullerton Regional.
Phillips went four-for-nine in the regional with five RBI and scored two runs in the two games against Gonzaga and Utah. The junior captain is also four-for-nine in his career against South Carolina. Snow pitched 3.1 innings in the first game of the regional against Gonzaga and allowed two runs on three hits.
Georgia Southern seeks its first victory in the NCAA Tournament since 2002 when it defeated Elon 6-2 in game two of the Clemson Regional. GSU is 2-6 all-time in regional games played in the state of South Carolina. The other win in a South Carolina regional came in 1996 when the Eagles defeated Old Dominion 6-0.
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.
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.
