Baseball Caps Opening Homestand with Mercer
2/27/2012 9:26:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - After a weekend series win over Radford, the Georgia Southern Baseball team wraps up an eight-game homestand with Mercer on Tuesday. First pitch against the Bears at J.I. Clements Stadium is set for 6 p.m., and a number of concession items will be on sale for one dollar at a special stand behind the student section. Freshman Sam Howard (Cartersville, Ga.) (1-0, 0.00) is set to take the mound for the Eagles and will face Dimitri Kourtis (1-0, 1.08) in his first start.
Georgia Southern (5-2) ends a successful February with their second mid-week game of the season and will need to stretch out the pitching staff with five games this week. The Eagles used 13 pitchers in the series against Radford but got a lift from Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) out of the bullpen on Sunday. Hess ate up four innings and allowed one run on a single hit.
Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) leads the team with a .433 batting average, five doubles and 12 RBIs. The senior captain led the bats in the series with the Highlanders with a .385 average and two doubles. T.D. Davis (Evans, Ga.) hit his first home run on Sunday and is second on the squad with a .370 batting average.
A hot Mercer (8-1) squad, who is off to their best start since 2005, comes to Statesboro after a sweep of Presbyterian. The Bears have played seven of their nine contests at home and have not lost since the second game of an opening day doubleheader. The offense has been off to a hot start and is averaging 11.1 runs per game. Evan Boyd leads the team with a .500 batting average and two other Bears have hit three home runs in their nine games.
The Mercer pitching staff is also off to a nice start and owns a 2.39 staff ERA. Dawson Brown, one of three Bears with a save this season, owns a team-best 0.79 ERA in 11.1 innings of work. Projected starter Kourtis is 1-0 record with a 1.08 ERA in two appearances this season. He threw two scoreless innings in a 12-1 win over Presbyterian on Friday and struck out three of the seven batters he faced.
The Eagles hold a 114-43 advantage in the all-time series with the Bears but are just 5-5 in the last 10 games. Mercer has won the last two contests including a 14-1 victory in Statesboro last year. Brandon Barker tossed five one-hit innings and left with an 11-0 lead. The Bears' offense finished with 15 hits with seven being of the extra-base variety.
All games can be heard on 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.
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