STATESBORO – Five innings of scoring helped the Georgia Southern baseball team (16-7, 4-1 SBC) power past the visiting Arkansas State Red Wolves (4-16, 0-5 SBC) 12-2 on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles will go for the series sweep on Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m.
The Eagles would start off the bottom of the first inning with
Jesse Sherrill's first home run as an Eagle, immediately giving GS a 1-0 lead. Shortly after,
Noah Ledford belted a single to left-center field, bringing in
Jason Swan in the process to give the Eagles the 2-0 lead.
Noah Searcy would plate Ledford on an RBI triple that bounced off the right field wall. To finish off the bottom of the first inning, Searcy scored from third off a wild pitch, giving the Eagles a 4-0 lead after the first frame.
The score would stay locked at 4-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Searcy was walked with the bases loaded, scoring Sherrill, and giving the Eagles the 5-0 lead. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Sherrill would knock an RBI single to left field, bringing in
Jarrett Brown to further the lead at 6-0. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brown would slam a two-run homer down the left field line, scoring
Kyler Hultgren, and giving the Eagles a big 8-0 lead.
Ty Fisher put in a great performance on the afternoon, going 6 ⅔ innings. He only allowed three hits in a scoreless outing and struck out eight in the process. His season ERA dropped down to 1.66 after his 97-pitch outing.
The Red Wolves would dig into the Eagles' lead in the top of the eighth inning, as a Jared Toler ground out to the shortstop would score Wil French, and a Jaylon Deshazier RBI single to left field brought in Ben Klutts to bring the score to 8-2.
The Eagles would score four more in the bottom of the eighth, starting with a
Parker Biederer RBI single up the middle that plated pinch runner
Sam Blancato. Shortly after, Sherrill executed a perfect bunt that had him reach first and score Hultgren from third, giving the Eagles a 10-2 lead. Biederer would return home on a wild pitch, and
J.C. Peacher would drive an RBI single through the right side, bringing home Sherrill and capping the scoring.
QUICK HITS
- Ty Fisher tied a career high with eight strikeouts on the day. He was a pitcher at Tennessee Tech the last time he struck out eight.
- J.C. Peacher had his first career at-bat today, which led to his first-career hit and his first-career RBI.
- The last time the Eagles beat a team by 10 was in last year's series opener against Georgia State, where the Eagles won 23-1.
- This is the first time the Eagles have started 4-1 in conference play since 2018.
UP NEXT
The Eagles will go for the series sweep of Arkansas State on Sunday, March 27. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. at J.I. Clements Stadium.