Baseball Steps Out of Conference to Face Clemson
5/9/2013 4:05:26 PM | Baseball
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Fri.-Sun., May 10-12
Time: 7 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 1 p.m.
Site: Clemson, S.C./Doug Kingsmore Stadium
TV/Video Stream: clemsontigers.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: Clemson leads 49-26-1
Statesboro: Clemson leads 13-5
Away: Clemson leads 15-7
Neutral Site: Clemson leads 2-0
Unknown: Clemson leads 17-13-1
First Meeting: 1959 - L, 2-5
Last Meeting: 3/17/10 - Clemson, S.C. - L, 6-22
Last Series Win: 5/8-10/89 - 4-1, 9-7, 2-1
Last Series Loss: 1987 - 10-3, 2-8, 5-14
Streak: Clemson, 10 wins
STORY LINES
Georgia Southern (25-23, 13-14 SoCon) steps out of conference and will travel to Clemson (34-15, 17-10 SoCon) in a three-game set starting Friday night. Game times for this weekend’s series are 7 p.m. on Friday, 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
All three games can be heard on the Georgia Southern Radio Network and online at gseagles.com/watch-listen.
GSU will send a rotation of Justin Hess (4-4, 3.79), Jason Richman (4-3, 5.62) and TBA against the Tigers' rotation of Daniel Gossett (7-3, 2.48), Matthew Crownover (5-1, 2.40) and TBA.
Justin Hess has allowed three or less earned runs over his last five starts and has gone no fewer than four innings during that stretch. Hess allowed three runs and struck out nine over 6.1 innings his last time out against Furman.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon will face his former coach in Jack Leggett this weekend. Leggett coached Hennon at Western Carolina from 1990-91.
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.
Scooter Williams hit his first two home runs of the season over the weekend. Williams, who entered the Furman series with just three career homers, hit home runs on Saturday and Sunday. Brent Pugh is the only other Eagle to hit a home run on back-to-back days this season. The four hits over the weekend snapped an 11 game 4-for-32 stretch for Williams.
Georgia Southern finished the month of April with a 5-12 record. The Eagles hit .244 in the month and finished with a 5.34 ERA. Robbie Dodds led the team with a .342 batting average during the 17-game month, while Justin Hess was 1-1 with a 1.98 ERA over six appearances and four starts.
The trio of T.D. Davis, Chase Griffin and Ben Morgan have combined for 20 of the team’s 29 home runs.
T.D. Davis has 11 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 48 games behind the plate for the Eagles this season. In his two-year career, Griffin has started 96 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.
WEEKEND RECAP
Georgia Southern dropped their fifth Southern Conference series of the season to Furman two games to one over the weekend.
Scooter Williams made just one start in the three-game series but tallied four extra-base hits over two games. Williams hit a pair of home runs and finished with four hits in eight at-bats.
Tyler Avera, Ben Morgan and Kyle Streicher all recorded five hits in the series and scored multiple runs.
Justin Hess allowed three runs and struck out nine batters over 6.1 innings and left with the lead in the seventh inning. The Paladins overcame a two-run deficit and scored 10 runs in the eighth inning to win the series opener 13-5.
The Eagles rallied from a two-run deficit of their own on Saturday but fell 5-3 in extra innings. Jason Richman held Furman to three runs over seven innings but was on the hook for the loss before Kyle Streicher hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run ninth inning to tie the game at 3-3.
GSU exploded for 13 runs on 15 hits in a 13-9 win on Sunday. Eight of the nine spots in the batting order tallied a hit, and seven recorded two hits. The only Eagle without a hit, Brent Pugh, walked twice and drove in a run.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern, who has fallen below .500 only twice this season, sits two games above .500.
Chase Griffin is averaging an RBI a game (.96) and leads the team in that category with 47.
Justin Hess is averaging 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings and has totaled a team-best 66 punch outs in 53.2 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 20-3 when scoring six or more runs and is 18-7 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.
The Eagles are close to setting a pair of unfortunate records. GSU is 13 strikeouts away from tying the school record for most punch outs in a season. Ben Morgan is also 10 strikeouts away from tying the school's single-season strikeout record of 64.
Georgia Southern ranks 40th 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.
CLEMSON SERIES HISTORY
Clemson holds a 49-26-1 edge in the 76 game all-time series with Clemson.
The Tigers hold a 15-7 margin in the series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
The two teams are meeting for the first time since a 22-6 Clemson mid-week win in 2010.
The two teams have not played a three-game weekend series since 1989. The Eagles swept that series 4-1, 9-7, 2-1.
Head Coach Rodney Hennon is 3-13 all-time against the Tigers.
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.
