Box Score | Brown Interview | Hennon Interview

STATESBORO, Ga. - Stryker Brown launched the first pitch he saw over the fence in right field to give the Georgia Southern Eagles a 1-0 walk-off victory over the Western Carolina Catamounts.

Brown's eighth home run of the season evened the series for Georgia Southern (32-20, 14-12). 

"We got a big hit from Stryker there to get on the board and finish the game. They were getting ahead of him all day. He got the barrel out on that pitch," Head Coach Rodney Hennon said about Brown's final at-bat.

Sam Howard tossed 8.2 stellar innings but left with a no decision in the ninth inning. Howard allowed five hits, no runs, two walks and struck out 10 batters on 127 pitches.

Howard faced the minimum through four innings after retiring a single on a double play in the second inning. The Junior righthander stranded a pair of base runners in the fifth inning and left the bases loaded in the seventh after making a hustle play to track down a line drive that hit off his glove and trickled out towards second base. 

"Both pitchers did a great job of making big pitches. Neither team threatened a lot but when they did both pitchers made some big pitches. Sam was able to work out of a couple of jams," Hennon said.

Matt McCall picked up the win in relief after recording the final out in the top of the ninth on a strike out. McCall (4-2) walked one batter but gave up no hits over the 0.1 innings.

Jordan Smith pitched eight shutout innings for Western Carolina (33-15, 17-5) but gave up a run on his first pitch in the ninth inning. Smith (8-4) held the Eagles to six hits, allowed no free passes and struck out five batters on 99 pitches.

Brown was the only Eagle to tally more than one hit on the day. He also singled in the seventh inning but was left stranded along with a base hit by Chase Griffin after Smith struck out Garrett Chapman and coaxed a fly out from Dalton Busby.

The Eagles got a lead off single in the eighth inning but failed to score a run after Smith struck out Ben Morgan, and Aaron Mizell grounded out to second base.

The Catamounts tallied five hits on the day, all singles, and no batter recorded more than one hit.

The series concludes tomorrow with senior day. The Eagles will honor their four seniors before the start of the 1:30 p.m. contest as well as all mothers in attendance. Bring your mom to the game, and she gets in free. 

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.