Davis' Grand Slam, Howard Help Eagles to Series Win
4/27/2013 10:29:14 PM | Baseball
Box Score | Video: Post Game with Coach Hennon
STATESBORO, Ga. - T.D. Davis' grand slam sparked a 10-run fourth inning, and Sam Howard threw four-plus scoreless innings of relief to help the Georgia Southern Eagles to a series victory over the Elon Phoenix with a 12-4 win on Saturday at J.I. Clements Stadium.
Georgia Southern (23-19, 12-11 SoCon), who earned their first Southern Conference series win since March 22-24 against Davidson, rallied from an early deficit for the second-straight day. The Eagles have now outscored Elon (22-23, 14-8 SoCon) by a combined score of 56-17 over the past four meetings dating back to the 2012 Southern Conference Tournament opener.
Kyle Streicher got the fourth inning started with a lead off infield single. Stryker Brown was hit by a pitch before Robbie Dodds loaded the bases with a base hit to left field. After Spencer Medick recorded the first out of the inning on an infield fly, Davis deposited a 1-1 pitch into the trees to the left of the scoreboard for his 10th home run of the season and second career grand slam. The next four batters reached base safely, plating a run before Streicher grounded into a RBI fielder's choice. After Brown walked, Robbie Dodds and Chase Griffin plated two runs each with base hits.
“I was proud of our team and their effort. The big grand slam put us up and give us some momentum and our guys kinda fed off that,” Head Coach Rodney Hennon said. “Hitting can be contagious sometimes. We talk about that a lot. I think that has been the case the last two days.”
Sam Howard, who entered in the top of the fourth, stranded a pair of base runners after striking out Joey Tomko and getting Alex Swim to ground out to second base. Howard (6-6) picked up the win after the Eagles rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the bottom half of the fourth and threw 4.1 scoreless innings in relief of starter Jason Richman.
“Sam came in the game in a critical point. That inning could have been a big inning for them,” Hennon said. “He came in and kind of shut things off and allowed us the opportunity to get those runs and take the lead. He did a nice job pitching with the lead once we gave it to him.”
GSU finished with 15 hits, just one more than the Phoenix. Davis, who was the only Eagle starter without a hit on Friday night, finished a triple shy of the cycle and scored two runs. Five other Eagles had multi-hit days, including Brent Pugh. Pugh came off the bench in the fourth inning and posted a pair of singles.
Medick (5-4) allowed just two runs over the first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth inning and was tagged with the loss. The lefthander allowed seven runs on eight hits and struck out two over 3.1 innings.
The three-game series concludes tomorrow at J.I. Clements Stadium at 1:30 p.m. It will be Military Appreciation Day at the ballpark and all service members in uniform will receive a free ticket. A $4 ticket will be provided to active duty members with valid ID. Residents of Evans County can also receive the discounted ticket on Sunday.
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.
