Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Tyler Avera scored on a wild pitch to complete a ninth inning rally and send the Georgia Southern Eagles to Saturday with a 3-2 win over the Furman Paladins on Thursday evening.

The win was the second on the day for Georgia Southern (27-30), and Head Coach Rodney Hennon's 500th victory at Georgia Southern. The Eagles, who improved to 2-2 against Furman (32-24) this season, opened the conference slate this morning with a 2-0 victory over the College of Charleston.

Stryker Brown reached on an infield single to start the ninth-inning rally. With the Eagles down to their last strike, Tyler Avera battled back from a 1-2 count to work a nine-pitch walk to bring Zac Lenns to the plate. Lenns then lined a 2-0 pitch into right field to plate Brown with the tying run before Avera scored on a wild pitch.
 
Ben Carlson (5-3) took the loss after allowing two runs over two innings. Carlson left two runners stranded in the top of eighth before allowing the two runs in the ninth inning.

Furman tried to mount a rally of its own in the bottom half of the frame, as Hunter Burton lifted a one-out double to right-center that just missed leaving the yard. GSU reliever Kyle Rowe (4-3) nailed down the win by striking out Will Muzika and Taylor Johnson to end the game.
 
Both starting pitchers turned in outstanding starts but earned no-decisions. Georgia Southern's Sam Howard allowed two runs over 6.2 innings and struck out a career-high nine batters. Furman's Alex Abrams allowed one unearned run over seven innings.
 
Abrams was dealing through the first five innings, allowing just Scooter Williams' infield single, but ran into trouble in the sixth as the Eagles drew first blood. Brent Pugh reached on an error to lead off, and Ben Morgan hit a one-out single to put runners on the corners. Robbie Dodds then lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score Pugh and break up the shutout.
 
Furman went ahead in the bottom of the seventh, getting a Jordan Simpson double down the left-field line to score Griffin Davis to tie it before Muzika doubled in Simpson to make it 2-1.
 
Greg Harrison went 4-for-4 to pace Furman at the plate, while Simpson was 2-for-4. Williams was 2-for-3 for GSU's lone multi-hit game.

The Eagles will await the winner of Furman and Elon on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Furman and Elon will take to the field Friday at 7 p.m. in an elimination game.

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.