Baseball Concludes Homestand Against Jacksonville
3/25/2013 7:13:39 PM | Baseball
GAME INFORMATION
Dates: Tues., March 26
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Site: Statesboro, Ga./J.I. Clements Stadium (3,000)
TV/Video Stream: gseagles.com/watch-listen
Play-by-Play: Ryan Chambers; Analyst: Kris Draper
Baseball Radio Network: gseagles.com/watch-listen
103.7 FM - WBMX - Metter/Statesboro
900 AM - WJLG - Savannah
1370 AM - WLOP - Jesup
Play-by-Play: Ryan Chambers; Analyst: Kris Draper
Live Stats: gseagles.com
Twitter Updates: @GSAthletics/@GSScores
Series: Ga. Southern leads 64-58 (122 games)
Statesboro: Ga. Southern leads 28-14
Jacksonville: Jacksonville leads 23-16
Neutral Site: No Games Played
Unknown: Jacksonville leads 17-13
First Meeting: 1958 - Statesboro - L, 5-2
Last Meeting: 4/11/12 - Jacksonville, Fla. - W, 7-6
Last Season Series Win: 2012 - W, 17-11; W, 7-6
Last Season Series Loss: 2006 - L, 5-2; L, 10-6
Streak: Ga. Southern, 3 wins
STORY LINES
#22 Georgia Southern (16-7, 8-1 SoCon) puts their eight-game home winning streak on the line Tuesday when they face Jacksonville (9-15, 2-1 A-Sun) at 6:30 p.m.
The Eagles entered the Baseball America rankings for the first time since 1990. Georgia Southern debuted in this week’s poll ranked 22nd.
The Eagles are tied for the ninth longest active home winning streak and hold the eighth longest active winning streak at six games.
Georgia Southern swept the two game season series a year ago, winning 17-11 at home on March 20th and 7-6 in Jacksonville on April 11th.
It will be Taste of Statesboro at the ballpark Tuesday. A number of sponsors will be providing free samples of their food to fans.
All three games can be watched for free at gseagles.com/watch-listen and heard on the Georgia Southern Radio Network.
The Eagles now sit nine games above .500 after a weekend sweep of Davidson. GSU has only been below .500 twice this season and has won 12 of their last 14 games since an 11-4 loss to Xavier on March 1st.
The Eagles are 12-3 in the month of March and hold a .284 batting average and a 4.26 ERA in 15 games this month.
Last Tuesday’s win over #11 Georgia Tech was GSU’s fourth win against a ranked opponent this season. The Eagles hold nearly half of the SoCon’s nine wins against ranked opponents.
Georgia Southern is 29th in RPI after the weekend and is 6-4 against top-50 RPI teams this season.
T.D. Davis has eight hits (.421), two doubles, two home runs, five RBIs and is slugging .842 in his last five games.
Justin Hess is 3-0 with three saves and a 3.44 ERA over his last six appearances, while Matt McCall is 2-0 with two saves and 1.50 ERA over his last six appearances.
Georgia Southern has five players that hail from the state of Florida, while two more have connections to the state. Michael McClellan was born in Orlando. Matt McCall’s grandfather, Bob Sr., was a member of Florida State’s Track and Field team.
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 posted their second weekend series sweep over the Davidson Wildcats and improved to 8-1 in the Southern Conference.
In order to do so, the Eagles had to win a pair of close ball games on Friday and Saturday before defeating the Wildcats 9-4 on Sunday.
Brent Pugh hit two home runs and tallied three hits in the series. Robbie Dodds, T.D. Davis and Chase Griffin led the team with four hits each.
Jason Richman tossed a season-high 8.1 innings and struck out eight in a start on Saturday.
Justin Hess earned a win on Sunday and picked up a save on Friday night.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern is off to its best start in league play since 2005. The Eagles opened Southern Conference play that season with nine-straight wins but finished 18-11 after winning just 9 of their last 20 league contests.
The Eagles have hit a home run in four-straight games dating back to the March 19th win over Georgia Tech.
GSU’s pitching staff has held their opponents to four runs or less in over the last five games. The current 5.02 ERA is the lowest since a Feb. 22nd win over Indiana.
Justin Hess eclipsed the 200 career innings pitched mark over the weekend and needs just four more strikeouts to reach 200 career strikeouts.
Robbie Dodds, who started the season on the bench, is hitting a team best .387 with five doubles and two home runs over 18 games this season.
T.D. Davis has 13 hits in 20 at-bats (.650) with three home runs against left handed pitching.
Stryker Brown is five for 10 (.500) with a double and five RBIs off the bench this season.
The Eagles have recorded at least one extra base hit in every game this season.
Georgia Southern is 12-1 when scoring six or more runs and is 12-1 when allowing five runs or less.
The Eagles are 14-1 when leading after the fourth inning and 12-0 when leading after six frames.
Georgia Southern ranks 29th in total attendance (24,780) and ranks 35th in average attendance (1,548) in the nation.
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.
JACKSONVILLE SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern holds a slight 64-58 edge in the 122 game series history with Jacksonville.
The series began with a 5-2 Jacksonville win in 1958 and the two teams have played annually since 1997.
The Dolphins have appeared in 13 NCAA Regionals with their last coming in 2011.
The Eagles hold a three game win streak against the Dolphins after sweeping last season’s two-game series.
GSU leads 28-14 in the series at home but trails 23-16 on the road.
The Eagles have won seven-straight home games in the series.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon is 17-11 all-time against Jacksonville.
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.
