Baseball Opens SoCon Tournament Against College of Charleston
5/20/2013 5:26:00 PM | Baseball
GAME INFORMATION
Date: May 22nd, Wednesday
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Site: Greenville, S.C./Fluor Field at the West End
TV/Video Stream: soconsports.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: Ryan Chambers; Analyst: Kris Draper
Live Stats: gseagles.com
Twitter Updates: @GSAthletics/@GSScores
Series: College of Charleston leads 26-28
Statesboro: Ga. Southern leads 12-9
Away: College of Charleston leads 17-7
Neutral Site: Ga. Southern leads 7-2
Unknown: No Meetings
First Meeting: 3/20/1999 - Charleston - L (10), 7-6
Last Meeting: 5/18/13 - Charleston - L, 6-8
Last Series Win: 2012 - Statesboro - 4-2, 1-4, 4-2
Last Series Loss: 2013 - Charleston - 2-7, 2-3, 6-8
Streak: College of Charleston, 3 wins
STORY LINES
Georgia Southern (25-30, 13-17 SoCon) heads to the 2013 Southern Conference Tournament at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. as the seven seed. The Eagles will face the College of Charleston (31-24, 18-11 SoCon) for the fourth time in seven days at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Cougars swept GSU over the weekend in the final Southern Conference series of the year in Charleston, S.C.
The seven seed is the lowest seed the Eagles have entered the SoCon Tournament. The previous low was in 2012 when GSU reached the conference tournament title game as the number six seed.
The game can be heard on the Georgia Southern Radio Network and online at gseagles.com/watch-listen.
The Eagles are looking to snap a seven-game losing streak. GSU's last win came on May 5th against Furman.
Since going 10 games over .500 with a 3-2 win over Charleston Southern, the Eagles have won just four of their last 23 games.
Robbie Dodds and Tyler Avera are both hitting over .300 against Southern Conference teams this year. Dodds is hitting .336 with nine doubles and 17 RBIs in 30 conference games, while Avera has 30 hits in 99 at-bats (.303) in 28 league games.
Brent Pugh and Stryker Brown are both hitting .385 over their last five games.
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.
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 18 homers.
T.D. Davis has 12 home runs on the season while the rest of the team has hit just 19. A year ago Davis hit just five home runs.
Chase Griffin has started all 55 games behind the plate for the Eagles this season. In his two-year career, Griffin has started 103 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 and currently sits at 25-30.
The Eagles' offense surpassed the 1995 team, who held the record for strikeouts in a season with 437, on May 12th with its 438th strikeout in the first inning.
Chase Griffin is averaging nearly an RBI a game (.84) and leads the team in that category with 46.
Justin Hess is averaging 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings and has totaled a team-best 107 punch outs in 84.0 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 20-5 when scoring six or more runs and is 18-9 when allowing five runs or less.
The Eagles are 22-4 when leading after the fourth inning and 20-3 when leading after six frames.
Chase Griffin, T.D. Davis and Ben Morgan are the only Eagles with 10 or more multi-hit games and 10 or more multi-RBI games.
Georgia Southern ranks 45th in total attendance (40,114) and ranks 47th in average attendance (1,337) 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.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
Georgia Southern started the season off with a series win over a ranked Georgia Bulldog squad and won four games against ranked opponents during the first half of the season.
The Eagles were in first place in the conference and ranked #22 by Baseball America going into a road series at UNCG. GSU won the opener 8-4 to improve to 18-7, 9-1 SoCon, but lost the series after a walk-off loss in game two and a 10-6 loss in game three.
Since the March 28th win over the Spartans, the Eagles have gone 7-23 with losing streaks of eight and seven games.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern holds a 26-28 edge in the 54 game all-time series.
The Eagles are 12-9 at J.I. Clements Stadium, 7-17 on the road and 7-2 in neutral site contests.
GSU last season series win came in Charleston, S.C. in 2011. Chris Beck helped the Eagles to an 11-7 win in the series opener, and Andy Moye picked up the win in a 7-1 victory in game three.
The two teams have meet nine times in the SoCon Tournament but never at Fluor Field. GSU went 2-1 against the Cougars en route to their 2011 Southern Conference Tournament Championship.
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 "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
