Eagles Head to Charleston for Final SoCon Series
5/15/2013 5:56:36 PM | Baseball
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Thurs.-Sat., May 16-18
Time: 6 p.m., 2 p.m., 1 p.m.
Site: Charleston, S.C./Patriots Point Field (2,000)
TV/Video Stream: cofcsports.com
Play-by-Play: TBA; Analyst: TBA
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 26-25
Statesboro: Ga. Southern leads 12-9
Away: College of Charleston leads 14-7
Neutral Site: Ga. Southern leads 7-2
Unknown: No Meetings
First Meeting: 3/20/1999 - Charleston - L (10), 7-6
Last Meeting: 4/1/2012 - Statesboro - W, 4-2
Last Series Win: 2012 - Statesboro - 4-2, 1-4, 4-2
Last Series Loss: 2010 - Charleston - 4-5, 7-8, 8-11
Streak: Ga. Southern, 1 win
STORY LINES
Georgia Southern (25-27, 13-14 SoCon) travels to College of Charleston (28-24, 15-11 SoCon) for their final regular season Southern Conference series of the year.
The three-game series opens on Thursday at 6 p.m. and will continue with a 2 p.m. game on Friday and 1 p.m. contest on Saturday.
The contest will be the final one at J.I. Clements Stadium for the Eagles’ seven seniors and serves as the team’s final non-conference game. GSU is 12-12 in non-conference games this season.
All three games can be heard on the Georgia Southern Radio Network and online at gseagles.com/watch-listen.
Seeding for the SoCon tournament is still up in the air going into the final weekend, but GSU knows it is in the tournament. The Eagles, who have never missed the conference tournament since joining the league in 1992, can finish anywhere from 4th to 8th.
Ben Morgan and Tyler Avera both have a seven-game hit streak. Morgan has 11 hits in 28 at-bats during the streak, raising his batting average to .301. Avera has just two multi-hit games during the current streak and is 9-for-30 over the last seven games.
Evan Challenger threw 4.1 scoreless innings on Tuesday upping his scoreless inning streak to 5.2 innings. Challenger has allowed four hits over his last two appearances and struck out three batters.
President Brooks A. Keel held a special graduation ceremony for four baseball players and three members of the 2013 SoCon Softball Tournament championship team Monday afternoon. Justin Hess, Chris Myers, Garren Palmer and Josh Stevenson received their degrees at Bishop Field House.
The Eagles need another five wins to give Rodney Hennon his 16th consecutive 30+ win season. Hennon has led GSU to a winning season in his 13 previous seasons at the helm.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon is also two wins away from his 500th victory at Georgia Southern. Coach Hennon picked up his 500th career victory in 2011.
Georgia Southern is 4-16 over its last 20 games and is looking to snap a current four-game losing skid.
Former high school teammates and current Eagles T.D. Davis and Ben Morgan have combined for over half of the Eagles' 30 home runs. Davis and Morgan have a combined 17 homers.
T.D. Davis has 12 home runs on the season while the rest of the team has hit just 18. A year ago Davis hit just five home runs.
Chase Griffin has started all 52 games behind the plate for the Eagles this season. In his two-year career, Griffin has started 100 times as the team’s catcher. He and first baseman T.D. Davis are the only two Eagles to start every game this season at the same position.
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.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern fell below .500 for the third time this season after being swept at Clemson.
The Eagles’ offense surpassed the 1995 team, who held the record for strikeouts in a season with 437, on Saturday with its 438th strikeout in the first inning.
Chase Griffin is averaging nearly an RBI a game (.88) and leads the team in that category with 46.
Justin Hess is averaging 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings and has totaled a team-best 98 punch outs in 78.2 innings this season.
Georgia Southern is 17-0 this season when recording as many or more hits than their opponent. The Eagles are 13-0 when out-hitting the opponent.
Georgia Southern is 20-4 when scoring six or more runs and is 18-8 when allowing five runs or less.
The Eagles are 22-3 when leading after the fourth inning and 20-3 when leading after six frames.
Chase Griffin and T.D. Davis are the only Eagles with 10 or more multi-hit games and 10 or more multi-RBI games.
Georgia Southern ranks 41st in total attendance (39,109) and ranks 47th in average attendance (1,348) in the nation.
In his 16th season at the helm of a Southern Conference program, head coach Rodney Hennon is the second winningest active coach in the SoCon.
MID-WEEK RECAP
Georgia Southern dropped their fourth-straight game to North Florida. The contest was the final home game and the final non-conference contest.
The Eagles tallied nine hits but left two or more runners stranded in the final four innings.
Tyler Moore held GSU to one hit over four innings for the win.
Chris Myers and Evan Challenger combined to throw 7.2 innings of relief. Myers allowed one run on four hits over 3.1 innings, while Challenger scattered four hits over 4.1 innings.
Kyle Streicher and Brent Pugh both tallied two hits each, while T.D. Davis drove in two runs with his 12th homer of the season.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern holds a 26-25 edge in the 51 game all-time series.
The Eagles are 12-9 at J.I. Clements Stadium, 7-14 on the road and 7-2 in neutral site contests.
GSU won the last season series in Charleston, S.C. in 2011. Chris Beck helped the Eagles to an 11-7 win in series opener and Andy Moye picked up the win in a 7-1 victory in game three.
The Eagles made it two-straight series victories in 2012 winning 4-2, 1-4, 4-2 at home.
This weekend’s series will be the final conference meeting between the two schools. The Cougars are set to join the CAA next season while GSU is headed to the Sun Belt in 2014-15.
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.
