Baseball Continues Homestand with Georgia Tech
2/21/2012 4:09:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - After a sweep of the opening weekend, the Georgia Southern Baseball team continues an eight-game homestand with the 10th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) will make his third start in the series and is looking to avenge an 0-2 career mark against Georgia Tech when he toes the rubber at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The Yellow Jackets will counter with sophomore righthander Jonathan Roberts.
Georgia Southern (3-0) rallied from two early deficits in the three-game series with UT Martin but outscored the Skyhawks 22-5 from the fourth inning on. The Eagles hit .330 in the series and five starters recorded hits in all three contests. Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) led the way with seven hits in 14 at-bats and drove in eight runs on two doubles and two homers.
The GSU pitching staff posted a superb 1.67 ERA and held UTM to just eight runs over the three games. Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.) bounced back after allowing a first inning homer in the opener by striking out eight and allowing just the one run in six innings. Kyle Rowe (Valdosta, Ga.) capped off the weekend by allowing just one hit over five innings in his Eagle debut.
Georgia Tech makes its annual trip to Statesboro after posting a 3-1 record in the Rock Hill Coca-Cola Classic in Rock Hill, S.C. The Yellow Jackets dropped the opener 5-0 to Kent State but bounced back to win three-straight over two days. Rain shortened what was supposed to be a four game tournament and forced a pair of doubleheaders.
The pitching was nothing but stellar for Georgia Tech in the opening weekend, but the offense hit just .239 and scored 16 runs. Daniel Palka was one of the few bright spots for the hitters and fell just a double shy of hitting for the cycle in the 6-2 win over Kent State. Palka finished the weekend with five hits in 15 at-bats and picked up extra-base hits in three of the five.
The Yellow Jackets' pitching staff posted a 1.50 staff ERA and struck out 37 batters to just five walks. Matt Grimes combined on a 5-0 shutout of Winthrop and allowed just one hit over seven innings. Projected starter Roberts threw 1.2 innings in the season opener and allowed one unearned run on a hit.
Georgia Southern trails the all-time series with Georgia Tech 88-28 after winning one of the four games last season. The Eagles won the series opener 6-5 in front of a stadium record crowd of 3,088. Bases loaded walks of Steve Cochrane and Victor Roache (Ypsilanti, Mich.) plated the tying and winning runs in the first of four games; however, the Yellow Jackets went on to win the final three games in the series.
The game can also be heard on the Boomer 103.7 FM and inside the stadium on 88.1 FM. Audio for all games is also available on the web and subscription video is available for all home games at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision.
Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.
