STATESBORO, Ga. | Georgia Southern jumped ahead of South Alabama with a five-run first inning and used a pair of home runs to pull out a 10-6 Sun Belt Conference victory at J.I. Clements Stadium on Friday night.
Georgia Southern (8-10, 1-0 SBC) used a pair of three-run home runs from Luke Hatcher (first) and Jarrett Brown (six) to create separation between the two teams and held off a South Alabama (8-10, 0-1 SBC) rally that included home runs from
Will Turner and
Trey Lewis. The Jags had the tying run on deck when the final out was made with runners at second and third.
Turner finished the night 3-for-5 with a run scored and pair of RBI, while Lewis finished 3-for-4 with a run scored and three runs batted in.
Jeremy Lee (1-2) suffered the loss, working 4.0 innings and allowing six runs (five earned) on five hits with four strikeouts.
Jacob Bruning, the last of five pitchers, worked the final 2.0 hitless innings in relief for the Jags.
How It Happened
- (T1) Trey Lewis got the Jags on the board with a single to right that scored JG Bell who reached on a fielder's choice, South Alabama 1-0.
- (B1) Jesse Sherrill scored on a ground ball double play after walking to start the inning before Jarrett Brown scored on a passed ball. The Eagles added to the lead with a three-run home run by Luke Hatcher, Georgia Southern 5-1.
- (T3) Will Turner trimmed the lead with a two-run home run to right field to score Bell, South Alabama 5-3.
- (B5) Noah Ledford scored on a ground ball double play on the infield before Blake Evans scored on a wild pitch, Georgia Southern 7-3.
- (B6) Jarrett Brown hit a three-run home run to extend the Eagles' lead, Georgia Southern 10-3.
- (T8) Lewis hit a two-run home run to left center to trim the deficit in half, Georgia Southern 10-5.
Up Next
The two teams return to action on Saturday afternoon for game two of the series with first pitch scheduled for 1 pm (CT), followed by game three on Sunday at 12 pm (CT).
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
Not the result you were looking for and not the way you wanted to start the game …
"You can't win any game, much less Friday night, getting off to that start that we got off to in the first inning. Overall, we gave up 11 free bases, you can't win like that. Eight walks, three hit by pitches, two errors, you can't beat average teams much less good teams in this conference. That's what I saw tonight. That was the game, we out hit them, and we gave them more free bases. Their hits counted, they had men on, and they would get into one, it was a three-run home run instead of a solo home run. That was the difference in the game, free bases."
You gave yourself a chance but left runners on …
"We opened doors for them tonight, and we closed doors on ourselves tonight. We had opportunities on both defense to shut them down and on offense to open it up, and we didn't take advantage of it on either side."
Less than 24 hours and you have to do it all over again …
"You just refocus. These guys know I don't ride the roller coaster and they understand that. I have said it all along to these guys, win or lose at midnight it starts the next day. We are on to the next game. You have no choice; we have two more of these but tomorrow is the most important of the year. They know that we need to play better, and we are capable of playing better. Georgia Southern is not better than us, and I told our team that, they just did the things the game required them to do to win today and we didn't. When you are evenly matched with another team and they do then fundamentals better than you, usually that team is going to win."
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