Georgia Southern scored in five separate innings to down the Marshall Thundering Herd on Sunday afternoon inside J.I. Clements Stadium. The victory cements a sweep of the Thundering Herd and ties the Eagles for third place in the conference after the weekend with Southern Miss.
Sunday's game followed the same script as the first two, as Marshall (13-29, 6-15 SBC) scored in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead into the bottom of the first frame.
The Eagles (23-21, 12-9 SBC) answered in the bottom of the first inning with a Sam Blancatosacrifice bunt, pushing Josh Tate across home plate and scoring the tying run. Southern then took the lead in the next inning thanks to a trio of runs, led off with. Jarrett Brown based-loaded walk to plate Sean Smith, then JD Kaiser's two-RBI single to left field scored Cade Parker and Tate to take a 4-1 lead into the third. The Eagles would tag one more run in the third from a T.J. McKenzie RBI-single, plating Smith a second time today.
Marshall would throw a punch to try and begin a comeback, when a two-RBI double by Ethan Murdoch scored AJ Havrilla and Calin Smith, cutting the lead down to just 5-3.
Three more Southern scores would come in the bottom of the first, starting with a Tate RBI-single to score Smith for a third time. McKenzie would then score from a Herd wild pitch, then Jarrett Brown's second bases-loaded walk would bring home Parker for a 8-3 lead.
Georgia Southern's final runs of the day would come in the bottom of the sixth inning when Kent Schmidt's two-RBI single to left field brought home Smith and Tate. Marshall looked to make a dent with a Caden Kaiser RBI-single in the top of the seventh, but that was all the Herd could muster, leaving Statesboro after a series sweep.
Porter Buursema earned the first victory of his collegiate career with 3.2 innings of work, allowing three runs on five hits, striking out four. Buursema's victory in a shortened start comes from the staff day notation on his start. Nicholas Weyrich took the loss after allowing eight runs on 10 hits in 4.0 innings.
Sean Smith and Josh Tate both led the Eagles with three-hit games, with two of Smith's going for doubles. JD Kaiser, T.J. McKenzie, and Cade Parker also had two hits on the day.
As the dust settles across the conference, Troy's sweep of Coastal Carolina and Louisiana's series victory over Southern Miss created some shake-up at the top of the conference. Louisiana still holds onto first place at 17-4 in conference, and Troy jumps to second at 14-7. Georgia Southern and Southern Miss are tied for third at 12-9, but the Blue and White holds the tiebreaker over the Golden Eagles thanks to a series victory in Statesboro back in March.
UP NEXT
The Eagles will focus on semester finals with no midweek this week, returning to play on Friday, May 3rd, with a road series against the ULM Warhawks.
