STATESBORO - It was only fitting that graduate Jay Thompson shut down the James Madison Dukes in the top of the ninth inning to collect his eighth save of the season and earn Georgia Southern the series victory on Senior Day, 4-2. Georgia Southern finishes the regular season with a 27-28 record, 16-14 in Sun Belt play, as the team awaits to hear who it will face in the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship presented by Troy University.
Georgia Southern took to the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning, when redshirt senior Noah Ledford crushed one last home run over the Blue Monster to take an early 1-0 lead over the Dukes (30-23, 15-13 SBC). In the same inning, JD Kaiser's RBI-single scored Jarrett Brown, another RBI-single by JP Tighe would plate Jonathan Jaime, and an RBI fielder's choice by J.C. Peacher would score Kaiser, setting the Eagles up with a 4-0 lead at the end of two frames. Georgia Southern would not score again, but four runs were all that were needed as the Eagles pitching was able to shut down JMU.
Ga'von Wray collected his fourth win of the season after pitching for five and a third innings of one run baseball, fanning three Dukes batters in the process. Will Robbins came in during the top of the sixth inning and was able to navigate the Eagles out of a bases-loaded situation, giving up only a run on a sac fly before striking out the final batter of the inning. Thompson came in during the top of the seventh inning and closed out the game for the Eagles, only allowing two hits, no runs, and sat down five JMU batters on his way to clinching his eighth save of the season.