STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern Eagles used two bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the eighth inning to induce a run-rule walk-off over the Marshall Thundering Herd, 14-4, on Friday night at J.I. Clements Stadium.

Marshall (13-27, 6-13 SBC) threw the first punch of the contest with four runs in the top of the first inning, first from a run scoring via a passed ball, then from a three-run homer by Elijah Vogelsong to take the early 4-0 lead.

The Eagles (21-21, 10-9 SBC) would put up 11 unanswered runs, starting with a two-RBI double down the right field line from JD Kaiser, bringing home Josh Tate and Kent Schmidt to cut the lead in half. Sam Blancato's sac bunt advanced Kaiser to third and scored Jarrett Brown to cut the lead to. just a run, then Sean White took advantage of a Herd misplay to reach first and plate JD Kaiser, tying the game.

The scoring in the first inning did not stop there, as T.J. McKenzie would join in on the fun with a two-RBI double of his own, bringing home Sean Smith and White to take the first lead of the day at 6-4. Schmidt doubled on his second at-bat to plate McKenzie and put up seven runs at the one of the opening frame.

In the bottom of the second inning, Southern scored two more runs, the first from a Smith RBI-double to plate Kaiser, then a McKenzie sac fly to score White, cushioning the lead at 9-4.

Smith again knocked an RBI-double in the bottom of the fourth inning to score Blancato and break double digits on the score, leading 10-4 after four.

In the later frames, Schmidt was able to plate Tate on a two-base error by the Marshall second baseman, putting the Eagles up 11-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Eagles loaded the bases with two outs. Tate did not see a strike as he walked in the penultimate run, then Schmidt battled back from an 0-2 count to walk the game-winning run in, sending everyone home early with a 14-4 victory in eight innings.

Thomas Higgins earned his fifth victory of the season after six innings of work, giving up four runs on six hits and striking out three. Marshall's Drew Harlow took his fifth loss of the season after giving up the first 10 runs of the game in four innings.

Three Eagles had multiple hits, as Sean Smith, JD Kaiser, and Josh Tate all ended the night with two hits. Smith had both hits go down as doubles and finished with three RBI, while Kaiser had one double with two RBI.

UP NEXT
Southern looks to take the series from the Thundering Herd on Saturday afternoon at J.I. Clements Stadium. A starter is yet to be announced for the Blue and White.