Box Score
POSTGAME INTERVIEW WITH COACH SMITH

STATESBORO, GA. – The final non-conference softball contest between Georgia Southern and Georgia State before the Eagles join the Sun Belt went the way of the Eagles on Wednesday afternoon. Southern scored three runs in the first inning and never looked back en route to its seventh-straight win entering a crucial Southern Conference series against Furman.

"Offensively we did a good job of driving runners in today," said Head Coach Annie Smith. "We got the hits when we had runners in scoring position, which is something we've been working on, so it is good to see it pay off"
 
The win for the Eagles took the home side to 27-11 on the year while Georgia State falls to 20-21 on the year. The contest was Georgia Southern Softball's "GATA Game" with athletes from every Georgia Southern varsity team joining together to support the Eagles on the diamond.

First blood went to the home side who erupted for three runs in the opening frame while losing just one out. Taylor Rogers got a leadoff single and was worked in to score off Shelby Morrill's single to the gap in right. A double by Kourtny Thomas and a single from Morgan Robinson plated two more runs as the Eagles sprinted out to an early lead and chased starting pitcher Eron Milton from the game.

State came back with a vengeance in the second, taking advantage of a passed ball with a runner on third, followed by an infield single to cut the Eagle lead to 3-2. Starting pitcher Sarah Purvis, however, settled down to get the final out via the strikeout.

Purvis claimed 11 strikeouts on the day and quelled the Panther threat for the rest of the game, picking up her 16th win of the season against just five losses.

Georgia Southern tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth inning as the Eagles tagged relief pitcher Kaitlyn Medlam for her first hits in the contest. Singles from Morrill and Thomas put ducks on the pond for Kaitlyn Johnson who drove in the runs with ease with a two-bagger to left.

The Panthers went in order in the seventh as Georgia Southern secured the 5-2 win in front of a large crowd at Eagle Field.

Georgia Southern travels for a crucial three-game series at Furman this weekend with play starting on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. the three-game set concludes on Sunday with a 1 p.m. matinee.

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. To purchase tickets call 1-800-GSU-WINS.