Baseball Opens Five-Game Road Swing at Mercer Tuesday
3/11/2013 5:46:41 PM | Baseball
GAME INFORMATION
Dates: Tues., March 12
Times: 6 p.m.
Site: Macon, Ga./Claude Smith Field (500)
TV/Video Stream: None
Play-by-Play: None; Analyst: None
Baseball Radio Network: gseagles.com/watch-listen
103.7 FM - WBMX - Metter/Statesboro
900 AM - WJLG - Savannah
1370 AM - WLOP - Jesup
Play-by-Play: Kris Draper; Analyst: Barrett Gilham
Live Stats: gseagles.com
Twitter Updates: @GSAthletics/@GSScores
Series: Ga. Southern leads 114-44-2 (162 games)
Statesboro: Ga. Southern leads 27-7
Macon: Ga. Southern leads 18-12-1
Neutral Site: Series tied 2-2
Unknown: Ga. Southern leads 42-13-1
First Meeting: 4/8/48 - W
Last Meeting: 2/28/12 - Statesboro, Ga. - L, 4-12
Last GSU Series Win: 4/25-26/00 - Statesboro
Last Series Loss: 3/16-17/99 - Macon
Streak: Mercer, 3 wins
STORY LINES
Georgia Southern (9-6, 3-0 SoCon) opens a five-game road swing at Mercer (14-3, 0-0 A-Sun) Tuesday. First pitch at Claude Smith Field is set for 6 p.m.
RHP Josh Stevenson will take the mound Tuesday for his second-straight mid-week start. Stevenson is 0-1 with 8.10 ERA over four appearances and one start.
The Eagles currently sit in first place in the Southern Conference after a weekend sweep of Wofford.
Georgia Southern holds a 114-44-2 all-time record in 162 games against the Bears.
The Eagles are 18-12-1 all-time in Macon and are 13-6 against Mercer under Head Coach Rodney Hennon.
Tuesday’s game will be the first of two contests against the Bears this season. GSU will host Mercer on April 16 at 6 p.m.
The Bears won last season’s meeting in Statesboro 12-4. Ben Morgan tallied three hits in the loss.
Georgia Southern is 9-6, 3-0 after 15 games this season. A year ago the Eagles were 7-8, 0-2.
The Eagles have a 1.84 ERA over their last five games. The pitching staff has allowed just nine earned runs over their last 44.0 innings.
Filling in for an injured Hunter Thomas, Robbie Dodds has a .393 batting average, two home runs and seven RBIs in seven starts this season.
T.D. Davis, Chase Griffin and Ben Morgan have combined for nine of the team’s 12 home runs this season.
Scooter Williams holds a .471 on-base percentage after being hit by a league-best 10 pitches and drawing seven walks.
Over 70 percent of Georgia Southern’s roster hails from the state of Georgia. The Eagles have 23 players on their roster from the Peach State.
WATCH & LISTEN
All Georgia Southern home games will be video streamed on gseagles.com/watch-listen for free. The stream will carry the Georgia Southern Radio Network’s feed with long-time play-by-play voice Ryan Chambers and color commentator Kris Draper on the call.
The Radio Network will also air the entire baseball schedule on 103.7 FM in Metter/Statesboro, 900 AM in Savannah and 1370 AM in Jesup.
WEEKEND RECAP
Georgia Southern swept Wofford to earn their first Southern Conference series victory of the season.
The series win was the first against the Terriers since the 2010 season.
Robbie Dodds led the team with six hits in 12 at-bats (.500), a double and a home run.
Jason Richman combined with Matt McCall and Justin Hess to shut out Wofford 3-0 on Saturday. It was the first Eagle shutout since the 2011 Southern Conference Championship Game.
Justin Hess recorded his first career save on Saturday and earned his 10th career victory in a start on Sunday. Hess tossed 6.1 scoreless innings on the weekend and struck out six batters.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern has tallied 10 or more hits in eight of their 15 contests this season.
The Eagles have recorded at least one extra base hit in every game this season.
After allowing 10 or more runs over a four-game stretch, the GSU pitching staff has held their opponents to five or fewer runs in the last six contests.
Reliever Drew Johnson is 0-0 with a 1.08 ERA over his last three appearances. Johnson has not allowed a run over his last 7.2 innings pitched.
After going two seasons at Georgia Southern without a home run, Ben Morgan has hit three through 15 games this season.
Georgia Southern ranks 24th in total attendance (22,214) and ranks 32nd in average attendance (1,708) in the nation.
Jason Richman combined with two other relievers to post the Eagles’ first shutout since Chris Beck tossed a complete game in a 1-0 win over Samford on May 29, 2011. Ending a streak of 75 games.
In his 14th season at the helm of Georgia Southern’s program, head coach Rodney Hennon is the second winningest active coach in the SoCon.
MERCER SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern holds a 114-44-2 edge in the 162 game all-time series.
The series opened in 1948 with an Eagle win on April 8.
Georgia Southern is 18-12-1 all-time in the series in Macon.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon is 13-6 all-time against Mercer.
Mercer has won three-straight games against the Eagles and are 5-5 in the last 10 meetings.
A YEAR AGO
A year ago against Mercer, Georgia Southern fell 12-4 on Feb. 28 in Statesboro.
Dimitri Kourtis allowed one earned run over six innings to earn the win.
Sam Howard suffered the loss after surrendering five runs off of five hits over three innings.
Mercer led 5-3 after the third inning and scored three runs in the fifth and four more over the final three innings to earn their ninth win of the season.
FIRST INNING SUCCESS
Georgia Southern has scored a first-inning run in 12 of its 15 games this season and is 7-5 when scoring in the first inning.
The Eagles hold a 23-7 run advantage in the first inning but have scored just 27 combined runs over the second, third and fourth innings.
A year ago the Eagles scored 12 less runs (32-44) in the first inning than their opponents and went 13-8 when scoring in the first inning.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
