Baseball Batters Little Rock to Advance to Saturday’s Semifinals

Thursday, May 23

Conway, S.C.

4 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

34-23

Little Rock

29-27

Georgia Southern

Little Rock

Baseball Batters Little Rock to Advance to Saturday’s Semifinals

5/23/2019 9:08:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Eagles are in the driver’s seat in the early bracket after two games

CONWAY, S.C. – Georgia Southern scored early and often in a 10-3 win over Little Rock to claim the coveted off day and a ticket straight to Saturday's semifinals. The Eagles got three hits and three RBIs from Jason Swan to lead an 11-hit game for the good guys. On the mound, Joe Nahas threw five and a third to improve to 2-0 while Cole Whitney picked up the long save, allowing just one hit over three and two thirds.

Georgia Southern got a run in the first off back-to-back Little Rock errors to start the game. Noah Ledford's sacrifice fly to left scored Steven Curry to put the Eagles on top early. After going scoreless in the second and third, Christian Avant's RBI single to right drove in Swan to make it 2-0.

The Eagles blew it open in the fifth with four runs off one hit and an error. Four walks and a hit batter contributed to the Eagles sending 10 batters to the plate in the frame and taking a 6-0 lead.

Little Rock got off the mark in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run home run off the bat of Ryan Benavidez who hit his 11^th bomb of the year. The Trojans scratched out another run in the eighth inning off a single, a wild pitch and three ground outs.

Georgia Southern closed the game out with single runs in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings to take the 10-3 win.

Joe Nahas made his sixth start of the season on the bump and went five and a third to earn his second win of the year. He allowed two runs off six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Cole Whitney retired the final 11 outs to nail down his sixth save of the year. He allowed just one run off one hit to send the Eagles to Saturday's semifinal round.

Georgia Southern will have an off day on Friday to rest up for Saturday morning's semifinal round. The Eagles will face the survivor of Troy and Little Rock who play on Friday at 3 p.m.