CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Georgia Southern Baseball team came back from an early deficit and scored seven unanswered runs for a 10-1 win at Charleston Southern on Tuesday afternoon. The Eagles tallied all 10 runs in the final five innings of the contest and finished with 13 hits. Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) led the team with three hits and drove in four runs in four at-bats.
Sam Howard (Cartersville, Ga.) (2-1) bounced back from a loss against Mercer a week ago and picked up the win out of the bullpen. Howard went 3.2 scoreless innings and struck out four batters to just one walk. Josh Stevenson (Social Circle, Ga.) threw a scoreless ninth inning to close out the ball game and hand GSU its second-straight win. Austin Weekley (1-1) pitched well early in the ball game but was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs in 5.2 innings.
Stryker Brown (Dalton, Ga.) and Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) plated the first two Georgia Southern runs in the fifth inning after back-to-back hits by Tyler Avera (Baxley, Ga.) and Clint Clark (Newnan, Ga.) led off the frame. Phillips added a third run and extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a two-out RBI single to right field.
The Eagles batted around in the sixth inning and scored four runs on four hits to take a 7-1 lead. Two hit batsmen followed an infield hit by Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) to load the bases with one out. After a wild pitch scored Morgan from third base, Williams plated the second run on a sacrifice fly to right field. Brown and Burruss drove in two more runs with back-to-back base hits.
Georgia Southern took a 9-1 lead in the eighth inning on a RBI double off the bat of Phillips. The Eagles added a single run in the ninth inning after Garren Palmer (Dalton, Ga.) led off the frame with an infield single. Williams drove him in with his third sacrifice of the afternoon, scoring Palmer from third base on a sacrifice fly.
Charleston Southern opened the game with a first inning run and made it hold up until the fifth inning. Walt Quattlebaum drove in Alex Tomasovich, who singled with one out in the inning, with a sacrifice fly to center field before Josh Adams (Bath, S.C.) struck out a batter to end the inning. Adams allowed 10 base runners on seven hits but held the Buccaneers to just one run on seven hits in four innings.
Georgia Southern continues a five-game road trip at Elon this weekend. First pitch in the series is set for 4 p.m.
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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