Eagles Open Four-Game Series at North Florida
2/29/2012 8:14:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team hits the road for the first time in 2012 and opens a home-and-home four-game series at North Florida on Thursday at 6 p.m. The first two games of the series take place in Jacksonville, Fla., and the final two games will be held at J.I. Clements Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.
Georgia Southern (5-3) dropped the first of five games this week to Mercer on Tuesday and is looking to bounce back when Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) takes the mound in game one. Hess is coming off a relief outing against Radford in which he allowed just one run and one hit in four innings. Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.), Lucas Hart (Atlanta, Ga.) and Kyle Rowe (Valdosta, Ga.) round out the weekend rotation.
The Eagles are hitting .292 as a squad and rank second in the Southern Conference with a .410 on-base percentage. Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) leads the team with a .424 batting average, five doubles and 12 RBIs. Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) is second on the team with nine RBIs, a .364 average and has scored a team-best 13 runs.
North Florida (4-3) won three-straight games before dropping the series finale to Jacksonville State on Sunday. The Osprey's are hitting .319 with seven home runs as a squad and have posted a 3.59 ERA in 62.2 innings. Drew Weeks is red-hot with 15 hits in 26 at-bats and leads the squad with four doubles. Joe Iorio is hitting just .188 but is tied for the team lead with six RBIs and has a double and a home run in his three hits this season.
The Ospreys' pitching staff have used five different starters in their seven games and all five have ERAs better than 4.00 on the season. Kyle Westwood is set to get the start on Thursday and is coming off a 9-1 win against South Florida. Westwood owns a 1-0 record and a 3.86 ERA in seven innings this season. Michael Renner takes the bump Friday and sports a 1-1 mark and a 3.55 ERA in two starts. The final two spots in the rotation are yet to be determined.
Georgia Southern holds a 6-4 record in the all-time series with North Florida which dates back to 2006. After dropping the first ever meeting, the Eagles won six-straight games from 2006-2008. However, in the last four contests the Ospreys are 3-1 including a sweep of last year's two games.
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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