Buies Creek, N.C. --- The Georgia Southern baseball team (5-4, 0-0 SBC) defeated Campbell (3-6, 0-0 CAA) 6-3 in extra innings for head Coach Rodney Hennon's 860th win, passing Jack Stallings for most all-time in program history.

After a strong start from both starting pitchers in Kade Grundy and Jake Murray, it wouldn't be until the Eagles third where a leadoff double from Cade Parker set him up to advance off a sacrifice bunt. The next batter, Josh Tate, flied a sacrifice fly to score Parker and strike first on the board. An inning later, Sean Smith mashed a towering homer to left field that traveled 435 feet to double the lead to 2-0. For Smith, it's his fifth homer of the season and an even dozen on the season for the Eagles.

Unfortunately for their offense, they would only find one hit in the next nine batters. It was a 2-0 lead for the Eagles going into the top of the six, and it was then where the momentum changed. After a hit batter and a single by JD Kaiser, a bunt laid down by Daniel Haab would eventually lead to the tossing of Rodney Hennon. The controversial call made was that Haab was called out on runner's interference, leading to the record-setting coach getting tossed on his historic night. The next batter would see the Fighting Camels get out of dodge and turn a double play to escape the inning.

In the bottom of the same inning, a one-out single followed by a far homer by Andrew Schuldt tied up the contest at two before a two-out eventual punchout from Kade Grundy would leave the bases stranded. The Campbell offense capitalized off of Southern's cold stretch as in the CU seventh, back to back walks issued by the Eagles made way for Schuldt to step in the box again, delievering the same result his last at-bat, this time adding one more run than his last home run and making the ball game 5-2 late. 

It wouldn't be until the ninth inning where Georgia Southern started their ascent. A leadoff walked bode well to start, but two strikeouts after Campbell switched picthers left the Eagles with just one out to play with, Herrholz singled through the infield to keep hopes alive before a miracle errant throw by the Campbell shortstop gave the Eagles new life and would cut the lead to two with both runners in scoring position. 

Next, Luke Odden drew a walk on a long at bat, firing up his bench. The top of the order saw Josh tate deliver a rolling grounder towards first, which had all Eagle faithful heading for the exits. But, Tate barrelled his head down and charged to first to beat out the flip to the picther covering the bag, barely beating the throw and cutting the lead to one. With Nico Senese up, he, like Odden, drew out a long at-bat that eventually resulted in a walk, tying the game. Although the Eagles could not win it in the ninth, they gave themselves an extra life.

They found themselves in a hole again in the bottom of the ninth, as Campbell had the bases juiced with only one away. Jax Lewis kicked it into another gear afterwards, as on two separate 2-0 counts, the following two batters would be retired to send it to extras.

With Haab up in the tenth, the man who led to teh legendary coach getting tossed, the then catcher barrelled up an offspeed pitch and set a drive to deep left field that sent the Eagle dugout into a frenzy, giving them the 6-5 lead. With just three outs before the legendayr win, a strikeout by Lewis, followed by a double led to the mound change for Will Robbins to close the curtains. Robbins would force a flyout, and then a swinging punchout on a 1-2 pitch to seal a win that the program will remeber forever.

On the mound, Grundy would go for 5.1 innings, giving up five hits, two runs (coming off the one home run), and punching out five. His performace made way for Jax Lewis, who went 4.0 innings, also giving up five hits, three runs (also coming off the one home run), and six strikeouts. Extra innings games have normally been hard to come by in recent years for the squad, much less wins. But now, the Eagles have two of them under their belt in the first nine games of 2025.

The Eagles look to take the series over the Fighting Camels with first pitch set for 3 p.m. in Buies Creek.