ARLINGTON, TEXAS – Georgia Southern Baseball circled the wagons and took a doubleheader sweep over UT Arlington on Saturday to win the three-game series.
Chase Cohen tossed a complete game shutout while
Ryan Cleveland hit two home runs in the 6-0 win to open the day. In game two, the Eagles rallied from an early 5-0 deficit to tie the game twice and eventually win the series with a 10-6 victory. Next up is a pair of games against The Citadel on Tuesday and Wednesday.
QUOTABLESHead Coach Rodney Hennon"I'm proud of our team, they competed all day long.
Chase Cohen gave us a great effort in game one which allowed us to save some arms in the bullpen.
Ryan Cleveland stepped up big for us offensively for us in that game. Our batters hung around in the second game and we got some things going once we got into the bullpen. It was probably the best competitive effort that we have had as a team this year. We need to build on this as a club beginning next week with two games against The Citadel."
GAME ONEChase Cohen delivered the best outing for an Eagle pitcher this season, going the distance in a 6-0 Georgia Southern win over UT Arlington. The freshman righty allowed just two hits and matched a career-high with seven strikeouts. His complete game shutout was the first since Sam Howard blanked Florida State in the 2014 Tallahassee Regional, 7-0.
Ryan Cleveland single-handedly put the Eagles ahead with a solo home run in the fourth. He followed that an inning later with his ninth home run of the season, this time blasting a three-run job to make it 4-0.
An
Evan McDonald sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 5-0 while CJ Brazil doubled in the eighth to make it 6-0.
Cohen improved to 4-2 on the year while UT Arlington's Jake Wilcox took the loss to fall to 3-3 on the year. The victory also took the Eagles to the 20-win plateau through 34 games in the 2016 campaign, one game earlier than 2015.
GAME TWOUT Arlington got to Georgia Southern's starting pitcher,
Brian Eichhorn, early in game two, tagging him for five runs in the second as he made his earliest exit from a game this season.
Georgia Southern struggled against starting pitcher Joel Kuhnel who held the Eagles to no runs off four hits over the first five innings. An error by UT Arlington to start the sixth opened the door for two runs in the inning.
Cal Baker drove in the first run with a single to right, while a fielder's choice by
Jordan Wren allowed
Logan Baldwin to scamper home and make it a 5-2 game.
In the seventh,
Hunter Thomas and CJ Brazil combined to open the inning with back-to-back solo home runs. After a double from Baker, a Baldwin single and Cleveland's hit by pitch, Georgia Southern had a golden chance with the bases loaded and one out. A fielder's choice by Ballard erased Cleveland, but Baker scored to tie the game at 5-5.
UT Arlington re-took the lead, taking advantage of a leadoff double in the home half of the seventh. An RBI single by Darien McLemore ultimately plated Jerame Littell to give the home side a 6-5 lead. It didn't last long as the Eagles evened the score yet again in the top of the eighth. With runners on second and third,
Evan McDonald hit a ground ball to second base to send
Kent Rollins home following his leadoff single. That tied the game again at 6-6.
The Eagles got themselves into trouble in the eighth, loading the bases full of Mavericks, but relief pitcher
Chris Brown got the final out to quell the threat and take the game to the 9th.
Logan Baldwin kicked things off in the ninth by wearing a pitch and moved over to second on Cleveland's ground out. Ballard laced one up the middle to score Baldwin, but it was a big fly by
Jordan Wren, his first as a member of the Eagles, followed by
Evan McDonald's RBI single to score
Tarez Miller and make it a 10-6 game heading into the final half inning.
The Mavericks mounted a late charge, getting a pair of hits, but
Chris Brown cemented the win with two strikeouts in the final frame. He earned the win to go to 3-2 on the season while UT Arlington's Daniel James fell to 0-4.
NEXT GAMEGeorgia Southern is back home on Tuesday to open a midweek series against The Citadel. The Eagles welcome the Bulldogs to Statesboro on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before traveling to the Holy City on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.
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