The Georgia Southern baseball team (4-4, 0-0 SBC) came up short to College of Charleston (6-2, 0-0 CAA) by a score of 6-3 on Tuesday night at J.I. Clements Stadium (February 25th).
It was a silent first few innings for both squads' bats, which saw six of the first eight half-innings have four or less batters step in the box. For Georgia Southern, however, they would still break open the score first with their limited at-bats. After a two-out walk and steal by newly inserted into the lineup J.C. Peacher, Josh Tate ripped a single through the left side of the infield and scored the quick Peacher to take the first lead.
Two innings later in the top of the fifth, an Avery Neaves two-run blast to center would see the Cougars take the lead right back after a hit batter put a runner on. Later that same inning, an error and a single would eventually put runners on second and third with one away, but Evan Vandenbosch retired the next two he faced via a strikeout and fly out to stop the inning.
The next at-bats for the Cougars would see a leadoff walk and a throwdown attempt gone awry as the Eagles' catcher would ricochet off the pitcher, tacking another run on the board for the Cougars. Later that same inning, a single to the outfield by Will Baumhofer would score two Cougars who were already waiting in scoring position. Georgia Southern would get one of those runs back though with a two-out JD Kaiser homer that sailed over the Blue Monster in right field, cutting it to a 5-2 ball game.
After a close call in the Cougar seventh that saw Brady Owens charge up the crowd with a bases-loaded strikeout to end the inning, the momentum would die down as another Southern mishap would score another run off a pass ball with a runner on third. In the bottom of the ninth, the Eagles had their last gasp to try and cut back into the ball game as a single by JP Herrholz and an error by the Cougar second baseman just two batters later would score their final run of the ball game.
Sean Smith continued to shine, putting up his fourth multi-hit game in the Eagles' eight to start the year. On the mound, Carson Bryant, despite the loss, would only allow three hits and struck out five in his 4.1 innings of work before giving up the two-run homer.