Baseball | 5/13/2015 1:27:00 PM

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STATESBORO, Ga. – The Georgia Southern baseball team travels to Atlanta for their final Sun Belt Conference series of the year. The Eagles will square off with the Georgia State Panthers in a matchup with conference seeding implications for both squads. 

The series begins a day earlier than normal due to the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tournament beginning on Wednesday, May 20. The two teams will play a pair of night games at 6 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday before wrapping up the series on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Eagles (28-24, 16-11) currently sit in third place in the league and are two wins ahead of the Panthers (28-23, 14-11) in the win column. Georgia State enters the weekend in fifth place in the league standings.

Both squads are looking to improve upon their seeding with a series victory this weekend. 

The Eagles hold a 58-17 record in the all-time series but the two squads have not met since 2007. The Eagles are 22-4 against the Panthers under Head Coach Rodney Hennon and are 25-7 at the GSU Baseball Complex. 

GS stepped out of conference play last weekend and dropped a series to the Clemson Tigers. The Eagles won Sunday's series finale 7-4 but fell 8-5 to Kennesaw State on Tuesday.

Georgia State had the mid-week off and was swept last weekend by the Troy Trojans. The Panthers are 19-12 at home this season.

The Eagles are hitting .260 as a squad. Former Panther and now Eagle Kody Adams leads the team with a .328 batting average. Adams leads the team with 14 doubles and is slugging .459. Adams played for Georgia State as a freshman in 2012 before transferring to Darton State College. 

The pitching staff holds a 4.29 ERA. Jason Richman ranks third in the league with seven wins and first with 33 pitching appearances. Evan Challenger continues to lead the league with a 1.69 ERA.

Challenger will make the series-opening start on Thursday. Senior righthander Tripp Sheppard will start the second game, while freshman lefthander Connor Simmons, who has made every weekend start, will pitch the series finale on Saturday.

The Panthers are hitting .278 as a squad. Matt Rose ranks sixth in the NCAA with 15 home runs and leads the Sun Belt Conference with 42 RBI. Ryan Blanton leads the team with a .330 batting average and is slugging .540. 

The pitching staff holds a 4.17 ERA. Nathan Bates has twice been named Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week and leads the team with a 4.34 ERA.

Bates will get the call on Thursday. Kenny Anderson will counter Sheppard on Friday and is 5-3 with a 4.65 ERA on the year. The Panthers have not announced a starter for Saturday.

Links to live audio and stats are available at 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. Fans can purchase tickets to Georgia Southern Athletics events by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or by visiting GSEagles.com.