Statesboro, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern baseball team (3-1, 0-0 SBC) came up just short in their first midweek contest of the year, 5-3, to Georgia Tech (4-0, 0-0 ACC).

For both offenses, the opening third of the contest was full of power. It was Southern who took the early lead over the ACC foe after Sean Smith powered a two-run homer over the left field wall on a chilly Tuesday night just two batters after Josh tate reached aboard off a leadoff double. Georgia Tech would halve the deficit the next half inning as a duo of baserunners led to a Drew Rogers single to left field on the first pitch of the AB to score one. With the bases loaded and one out, the Eagles miraculously were able to get out of the inning with no more damage dealt. Carson Kerce slapped a hot shot to former Yellow Jacket Nico Senese at third, who tapped on his bag and fired to first to end the stressful second inning for the Eagles' faithful.

In the Eagles' second frame, a towering double from Cade Parker down the left field line and a perfect bunt from another former Yellow Jacket in Jett Lovet set up Luke Odden to put one more on the board for Southern with his sacrifice fly to center.

The Yellow Jacket third started with back-to-back solo home runs in nearly the same spot in left-center off the bats of Tech's one-two combo in the linuep of Kyle Lodise and Drew Burress to once again cut it to a one-run contest. The very next batter saw former Eagle Kent Schmidt rip a double down the right field line before stealing third just a few pitches later. For Alex Hernandez now at the plate, it was as simple as a groundout to Odden at second for the Yellow Jackets to draw even. 

The third inning also saw Mason Patel enter, who ended up receiving the win and also was able to shut down the Southern offense. The Georgia State transfer grad student went 5.1 innings of scoreless work, only allowing one hit and striking out nine in just 50 pitches. Conversely, Davis Smith entered in the fourth with a runner in scoring position and two outs in the one-run game. After hitting a batter, he was able to force a fly out to get out of dodge. Smith made his second appearance on the season, the first Eagle to do so in 2025, going three innings and only giving up a lone run in the seventh after the batter he walked would end up scoring. The grad student only gave up a singular hit and struck out four Tech sluggers in his quality outing. 

In the bottom of the ninth, former Eagle Jalen Payden toed the rubber to attempt to close the game out against his old team. After a one-out JP Herrholz single before pinch runner J.C. Peacher took second on a passed ball, Jonathan Jaime would walk to put the winning run at the plate. Cade Parker went down on strikes before Jett Lovett eventually fell to the same fate against his previous team for Georgia Tech to narrowly escape with a win. 

Josh Tate accounted for three of the Eagles' seven hits on his best day at the plate of the season. The Eagle bats were sat down on strikes an even dozen times on the night, but relievers in Brady Owens and Joey White each only gave up a singular hit and no runs in their inning of work late in the ball game.

Next for the Eagles is another weekend home series where the Bulls of South Florida come to town. Game one is set for 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon where Southern hopes to find their treasure on Pirate Night at J.I.