Late in a 7-7 game at J.I. Clements Stadium, Sean White sent a two-run homer over the wall in center field to put the Eagles up 9-7 in the eighth inning, securing a Sun Belt Conference series sweep for the Blue and White over Georgia State on Sunday afternoon.
Georgia State (15-16, 7-5 SBC) took an early lead in the top of the first inning when Luke Boynton scored on an Eagle error, leading to the quick 1-0 lead. Georgia Southern (18-14, 8-4 SBC) responded in the bottom of the second inning with four runs, starting with a Josh Tate RBI-double, scoring Luke Odden to tie up the game. Jarrett Brown's 200th-career hit was a RBI-single to the shortstop to score Tate, doubling the lead at 2-1. JD Kaiser and Sean White both walked with the bases-loaded to set the Eagles up with a 4-1 lead after two frames.
State responded in the top of the third with a four-run inning of its own, starting with a Boynton solo homer. Next, Jesse Donohoe knocked an RBI-single to score Michael Maginnis, then Dylan Strickland knocked an RBI-double to score Donohoe. Colin Hynek ended the inning with an RBI-groundout to score Strickland, giving the Panthers a slim 5-4 edge.
Georgia Southern responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, first with a solo home run from Jarrett Brown to tie the game. Jonathan Jaime gave the Eagles the lead with an RBI-single through the right side of the infield to score Kaiser and put the Eagles up 6-5 after four frames.
In the top of the fifth inning, it was Georgia State's turn to respond in the back-and-forth affair, when a second Eagle error allowed Maginnis to come home and tie the game. Hynek would single to left field to score Donohoe and again take a one-run lead at 7-6.
In the bottom half of the fifth inning, Kent Schmidt would tie the game with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Tate, bringing the game to seven-all.
The eighth inning saw the intensity of the game ramp up, as a lead-off walk by Boynton put a runner on to start the inning. However, Kaiser was able to recover a wild pitch and throw him out while trying to take second, vacating the bases and allowing Jacob Phillips to get the other two batters out to finish the top of the eighth. In the bottom half of the same inning, Schmidt led off the inning with a double, which Rhett Hammontree then came in to run for Schmidt. White then knocked his 398-foot home run to center field to put the Eagles up 9-7, with the Eagles just needing three more outs to clinch the sweep.
The first two Panther batters went down via strikeout and foul-fly, but pinch-hitter Matt Ruiz was walked to bring the tying run to the plate. Phillips induced a groundout to first baseman Corey Dowdell, who took the ball and tagged the bag, ending the Panthers' potential rally and securing the sweep.
After all the dust has settled around the conference, Georgia Southern is currently tied for second place in the conference, only behind Louisiana. Southern Miss is also in that second place spot, but the Eagles own the tiebreaker over USM.
Phillips took his second victory of the season with two innings of hitless baseball late in the game, striking out two. Kameron Douglas took the loss as he was the pitcher who gave up the home run to change the lead in the eighth inning.
UP NEXT
Georgia Southern heads to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Tuesday, April 9. Action from Russ Chandler Stadium is set to begin at 6 p.m.
