Baseball Wraps Up Four Game Homestand Tuesday
3/19/2012 6:37:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - After picking up their first Southern Conference series victory of the year, Georgia Southern returns to J.I. Clements Stadium on Tuesday for the only home game this week. The Eagles wrap up a four-game homestand against Jacksonville at 6 p.m. before taking to the road for a weekend series against Furman.
Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) gets the start for the Eagles and will face Jacksonville's (10-11) Spencer Jack in his fourth start of the year. Hess has no record after recording starts against #10 Georgia Tech, North Florida and Elon. The junior pitcher holds a 7.53 era in 14.1 innings this season. Jack has appeared in three games this year with one start and holds a 1.50 ERA in six innings of work.
Georgia Southern (9-11, 2-4) picked up two wins in their home SoCon series opener against UNCG and got solid pitching from Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.), Will Middour (Atlanta, Ga.) and Kyle Rowe (Valdosta, Ga.). Beck pitched well after a two hour lightning delay and bounced back from a leadoff home run to strikeout a season-high 9 batters in game one. Middour and Rowe combined for 8.1 innings of four earned runs on six hits to help the Eagles pick up the series win in a 6-5 victory on Sunday. Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.) hit .455 with three doubles, four runs scored and three RBIs for the series.
Jacksonville, who participated in the Gainesville regional a year ago, opened last weekend's Wingate Invitational with a 5-2 win over Western Carolina but ended up splitting the four-game tournament. They dropped contests to Fairfield and Western Carolina on Saturday before bouncing back with a 5-4 win against the Stags on Sunday. Head Coach Terry Alexander picked up his 700th career victory two weeks prior with a 9-2 win at South Florida.
The Dolphins are hitting .259 on the year with a .359 on-base percentage and eight home runs, three of which have come off the bat of All-American Adam Brett Walker. Walker was named to the Golden Spikes watch list prior to the start of the season and is hitting .257 with a team-best 17 RBIs. The junior has walked 16 times and holds a .385 on-base percentage. The pitching staff holds a 4.09 ERA but has walked nearly as many batters as they have struck out.
Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) continues to lead Georgia Southern with a .450 batting average and holds the team lead in home runs and RBIs. The senior captain has reached base in every game this season and snapped out of an 0-for-5 funk in the series finale with four RBIs and his third home run of the season.
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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