STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern baseball team defeated rival Appalachian State twice in one day to sweep a doubleheader and take a key Sun Belt Conference series on Saturday, April 15, at J.I. Clements Stadium.
GAME ONE - 8-6 GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Georgia Southern (17-18, 7-7 SBC) started the scoring in the bottom of the second inning, when JP Tighe knocked the first triple of his career to score JD Kaiser. In the bottom of the third inning, the Eagles tripled the lead thanks to Corey Dowdell's two-run homer down the left field line, scoring Noah Ledford and taking a 3-0 lead over App State (17-15, 7-6 SBC). The Mountaineers responded in the top of the fourth inning with a single run, but the Eagles added two more in the bottom of the fourth inning with Jesse Sherrill's two-RBI single, scoring Tighe and Kaiser, notching a 5-1 lead after four frames.
In the top of the fifth inning, App State closed the gap at 5-3 with a two run homer, and would take a one-run lead in the top of the eighth inning after a wild pitch and a two-RBI single to right center. In the home half of the same inning, Tighe would tie the game with a solo-shot to left center and Jarrett Brown knocked a two-run blast over the Blue Monster, scoring Sam Blancato and taking a 8-6 lead. Jay Thompson pitched through the four outs of the game and earned his third win of the season.
GAME TWO - 19-5 (7 INN.) GEORGIA SOUTHERN
The Eagles (18-18, 8-7 SBC) earned a run-rule victory over the Mountaineers (17-16, 7-7 SBC), highlighted with 14 combined runs scored by the Eagles in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings. Georgia Southern got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning with a Jarrett Brown sac fly to right field, scoring Jesse Sherrill after he reached base with a lead-off triple. App State tied the game in the top of the third inning with a solo-homer, but the Eagles took a 4-1 lead after scoring three two-out runs on three-consecutive RBI-singles with Noah Ledford scoring Sherrill for his 200th-career RBI, Corey Dowdell scoring Brown, and Blake Evans scoring Ledford. The Eagles added another run in the bottom of the fourth inning with a Brown bases-loaded hit by pitch, but App would try to start and claw at the lead with a unearned run from an Eagles error, with GS leading 5-2 in the middle of the fifth inning.
Georgia Southern would score nine runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, loading the bases with three-consecutive walks, then scoring on a fourth walk by Sam Blancato. Sherrill's two-RBI double down the left field line highlighted the inning and would set him at a home run shy of hitting for the cycle on the night, but Dowdell and Blancato both had two-RBI singles before the frantic inning of scoring ended for the Eagles, taking a 12-2 lead. App State scored one in the top of the sixth inning to take the Eagles out of run-rule territory, but five more runs by Georgia Southern in the bottom of the sixth inning, highlighted by an AJ Wenrich two-RBI double, would firmly place the Eagles in run-rule territory with a 19-3 lead. App State scored two from a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning, but it was not enough to prevent the 19-5 run-rule victory for the Eagles.
Brett Zerbel earned the first win of his collegiate career after finishing the fifth inning and only giving up one earned run.
UP NEXT
The Eagles will play the next four games on the road, taking on Kennesaw State on Wednesday, April 19, before taking on Marshall from Friday, April 21 to Sunday, April 23.
