STATESBORO - Luke Hatcher's 3-for-3 day highlighted an offensive explosion by the Eagles bats as Georgia Southern clinched the opening Sun Belt Conference series over the South Alabama Jaguars, 11-1, Saturday afternoon at J.I. Clements Stadium.

Georgia Southern (9-10) got the scoring started first when a RBI-single by Jesse Sherrill in the bottom of the second inning scored Luke Hatcher. In the bottom of the third inning, the Eagles would plate three more runs, one from a Zane Faulk RBI-single, one from a throwing error by the USA (8-11) pitcher, and one from a wild pitch. GS would score two more in the bottom of the fourth when Hatcher's two-RBI single that scored Blake Evans and Noah Ledford. South Alabama would plate its only run of the day in the top of the fifth inning, when a based-loaded catchers interference was called against the Eagles, setting the score at 6-1 after five innings of action.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Sam Blancato hit his second home run of the season with a two-run blast over the Blue Monster in right field, bringing the Eagles lead up to 8-1. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Faulk's sacrifice fly to right field would plate Jarrett Brown, and in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Eagles would wrap up the scoring with Hatcher's third RBI-hit of the day, scoring JD Kaiser, and with Jonathan Jaime's groundout scoring Hatcher.

Ben Johnson earned his fourth win of the season with five innings of one-run baseball, fanning four Jaguars batters in the process. Mitchell Gross earned his first save of the season with four innings of action, only allowing a single hit, no runs, and striking out two.

QUICK HITS

• Luke Hatcher had a perfect 3-for-3 day with three RBI and four runs scored.
• Both of the Eagles pitchers combined for six total strikeouts. Starter Ben Johnson had four and reliever Mitchell Gross had two.
• This is the third-consecutive series the Eagles have won against South Alabama, and the second-consecutive one at home.
• Six of the Eagles' 11 runs were scored with two outs.

UP NEXT
The Eagles look to start conference play off with a sweep against South Alabama, with first pitch from J.I. Clements Stadium set for 1 p.m. LHP Anthony DiMola (0-1, 6.10 ERA) will take the mound for the Eagles in the contest.