Baseball | 5/24/2016 12:45:00 PM

GAME NOTES // TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The second season starts on Wednesday for Georgia Southern Baseball with the Sun Belt Tournament opening in San Marcos, Texas. The Eagles are the No. 6 seed in the tournament, finishing in a tie with Texas State for fifth place in the final standings. The Eagles open the tournament against No. 3 seed Little Rock at 10 a.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (CT) on Wednesday.

TOURNAMENT FACTS
DATES – May 25-29
LOCATION – San Marcos, Texas (Bobcat Ballpark)
RADIO – Ga. Southern Sports Network
VIDEO (Wednesday) – SunBeltSports.org
VIDEO (Thursday thru Sunday) – ESPN3
LIVE STATS – SunBeltSports.org

TEAM RECORDS
No. 1 – UL Lafayette – 37-19 (21-9 Sun Belt)
No. 2 – South Alabama – 38-18 (21-9 Sun Belt)
No. 3 – Little Rock – 26-26 (17-13 Sun Belt)
No. 4 – Troy – 32-24 (17-13 Sun Belt)
No. 5 – Texas State – 30-26 (16-14 Sun Belt)
No. 6 – Georgia Southern – 33-23 (16-14 Sun Belt)
No. 7 – UT Arlington – 29-26 (15-15 Sun Belt)
No. 8 – Arkansas State – 27-27 (13-17 Sun Belt)

QUICK HITS
• Georgia Southern enters the 2016 Sun Belt Tournament tied for fifth with Texas State, earning the No. 6 seed. The Eagles won their final regular season series, taking two of three from Georgia State. It was Southern's first series win at home in league play.
• Georgia Southern ranks fourth nationally in sacrifice bunts with 69 this season. CJ Brazil and Evan McDonald rank 12th in the nation with 14.
• For Georgia Southern, the magic number is six. The Eagles are 21-2 this season when scoring six or more runs. Over the past five season the Eagles are a combined 113-19 including 31 wins in 2014.

2016 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 25
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 1: - 10:00 a.m. - No. 6 Georgia Southern vs. No. 3 Little Rock (SunBeltSports.org)
Game 2: - 1:30 p.m. - No. 7 UT Arlington vs. No. 2 South Alabama (SunBeltSports.org)
Game 3: - 5:00 p.m. - No. 5 Texas State vs. No. 4 Troy (SunBeltSports.org)
Game 4: - 8:30 p.m. - No. 8 Arkansas State vs. No. 1 UL Lafayette (SunBeltSports.org)

Thursday, May 26
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 5: - 10:00 a.m. - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 (ESPN3)
Game 6: - 1:30 p.m. - Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 (ESPN3)
Game 7: - 5:00 p.m. - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 (ESPN3)
Game 8: - 8:30 p.m. - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 (ESPN3)

Friday, May 27
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 9: - 4:00 p.m. - Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7 (ESPN3)
Game 10: - 7:30 p.m. - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 8 (ESPN3)

Saturday, May 28
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 11: - 10:00 a.m. - Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9 (ESPN3)
Game 12: - 1:30 p.m. - Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10 (ESPN3)
Game 13: - 5:00 p.m. - *Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11 (ESPN3)
Game 14: - 8:30 p.m. - #Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12 (ESPN3)
* Game 13 is necessary if the winner of Game 9 also wins Game 11.
# Game 14 is necessary if the winner of Game 10 also wins Game 12.

Championship Sunday, May 29
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Game 13: - 2:00 p.m. - Winner Game 11/13 vs. Winner Game 12/14 (ESPN3)

EAGLES ELIMINATE GEORGIA STATE
• Georgia Southern delivered the final blow to Georgia State's season on the final weekend of the regular season, taking two of three from the Panthers.
• Evan McDonald threw seven shutout innings as the Eagles blanked the Panthers 6-0 in the opener.
• After Georgia State took game two of the series, Brian Eichhorn closed out the regular season with a complete game four-hitter. He worked 8.2 shutout innings to extend his scoreless innings streak to 16.0 before the Panthers got on the board late.
• Ultimately, Georgia State capitulated as the Eagles outscored the Panthers 15-6 in the three-game series.

AT HOME ON THE ROAD
• Georgia Southern has had a solid season away from home, going 11-4 away and 5-10 at home in league play.
• The Eagles are hitting 67 points better away from Statesboro and scored 34 more runs.
• On the pitching side, the Eagles have a 3.70 ERA away and 3.90 ERA at home in league play.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!
• Ryan Cleveland has had a resurgent second half of the season, clubbing eight home runs in the last 22 games to take the lead in the Sun Belt.
• He is hitting .296 on the year despite 68 strikeouts while ranking second in the SBC with a .615 slugging percentage.
• With a team-best 15 game hit streak under his belt this season, Cleveland also posted a 37 game reached base streak which spanned March 5th (second game of Memphis series) and May 7th (second game of South Alabama series).

FOUR EAGLES EARN THEIR DEGREES
• One day after the close of the South Alabama series, four Eagles were awarded their degrees in a special commencement ceremony, officiated by interim president Dr. Jean Bartels.
• Ryan Frederick, Drew Kelley, Kent Rollins and Hunter Thomas each graduated with a GPA over 3.0 and received the Athletic Foundation's Academic Excellence Ring for their achievement.

IN THE CLASSROOM
• The Georgia Southern baseball team posted a 3.25 GPA in the fall semester, its highest semester GPA in program history.
• 28 of the Eagles were on the honor roll with 12 on the Dean's List and 3 on the President's List.

EAGLES PARTNER WITH VS. CANCER FOUNDATION
• Georgia Southern hosted its second Vs. Cancer Day on April 3rd, raising funds and awareness for the Vs. Cancer Foundation to help combat children's cancer.
• The Eagles surpassed their goal of raising $8,000 for the foundation by gathering more than $11,000.
• Fans can still join the fight at http://team.vs-cancer.org/georgiasouthern

EAGLES IN THE PROS
CHRIS BECK (2010-12) // AAA // Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox)
Chris made his major league debut on May 28, 2015 with the White Sox at Baltimore. He earned his first win of 2016 on 4/20, going six against Norfolk. He is 3-3 in 2016 in eight appearances, but was placed on seven-day disabled list on May 18.
MATT MURRAY (2009-11) // AAA // Omaha Storm Chasers (Kansas City Royals)
Matt is currently on the restricted list while he serves a suspension.
VICTOR ROACHE (2010-12) // AA // Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee Brewers)
Victor is hitting .245 this year with three-hit games on 4/19 and 4/20.
ERIC ALONZO (2014) // A // Burlington Bees (Los Angeles Angels)
Eric opened his season with eight relief appearances and 22.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He is 1-0 on the season with a 0.65 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 10 games.
JOSH WIRSU (2014) // ADV-A // Palm Beach Cardinals (St. Louis Cardinals)
Has pitched three times in relief this season, most recently on April 27, going 1.0 innings against Bradenton.
SAM HOWARD (2012-14) // ADV-A // Modesto Nuts (Colorado Rockies)
Sam is 2-2 this year in eight starts, fanning 49 batters. He went seven innings with 10 Ks against San Jose on May 13th.
AARON MIZELL (2014-15) // A // Quad City River Bandits (Houston Astros)
Aaron is currently hitting .258 in 33 games this season with a .687 OPS, tagging 12 extra base hits.
JASON RICHMAN (2013-15) // AA // Frisco RoughRiders (Texas Rangers)
Jason has bounced between A Hickory, AA Frisco and currently Adv-A High Desert Mavericks. In his first game in Southern California, Richman gave up two runs without retiring an out. That outing came on the day he was reassigned from Frisco where he pitched twice for the AA team, working a pair of no-hit innings.

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 visiting GSEagles.com/Tickets.