Baseball | 3/26/2015 6:31:00 PM
Hennon Interview | Challenger Interview | Game Notes
STATESBORO, Ga. – The Georgia Southern baseball team visits the state of Texas for the first time in program history and will face Texas State this weekend in a first-place showdown.
The two teams will meet for the first time in program history. The Eagles (16-11, 6-3) are 1-1 all time against teams from the state of Texas and played the Texas Longhorns in their first trip to Omaha in 1973.
First pitch in the series is set for 7 p.m. The series continues on Saturday at 4 p.m. and concludes with a 1 p.m. start on Sunday. All times are eastern.
Georgia Southern has won two of their three Sun Belt Conference series this season. The Eagles swept Appalachian State to open league play and took a doubleheader last Saturday to win the series against Arkansas State. GS posted their first wins on the mid-week and defeated Kennesaw State 8-4 on Tuesday and Jacksonville 9-4 on Wednesday.
The offense has improved its batting average over 10 points in the last five games, going from .252 to .265 on the year.
Aaron Mizell leads the team in conference play with a .343 batting average, four home runs and 10 RBI.
Ryan Cleveland has two home runs, a grand slam and seven RBI over his last five games.
The Georgia Southern pitching staff holds a 3.74 ERA on the season. The staff has combined to allow just 19 runs over 86.0 innings in league play.
Evan Challenger leads the Sun Belt with a 1.02 ERA and has surrendered just four earned runs over 35.1 innings this season.
The Bobcats (10-13-1, 6-3) are hitting .230 as a squad. Cedric Vallieres leads the team with a .307 batting average and 15 RBI. David Paiz is second on the squad with a .287 average and paces the team with seven doubles.
The pitching staff holds a 4.87 ERA on the season. Scott Grist has made six starts on the year and is 1-1 with a 2.21 ERA. Grist made the Saturday start against South Alabama and allowed just one run over 8.1 innings in a no decision.
Links to live video, live audio and live stats are also available on GSEagles.com.
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, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, call 1-800-GSU-WINS or visit GSEagles.com.
