The Georgia Southern Baseball team will put their seven-game win streak on the line in another important Southern Conference Series at J.I. Clements Stadium. The Eagles will host the top team in the SoCon for the second time this year and will play a three-game series against #27 Appalachian State.
After dropping 9 of 11 games from February 26th to March 13th, Georgia Southern (20-15) improved to a season-best five games over .500 with a 7-6 win over Jacksonville on Wednesday. The seven-game win streak is the longest since the 2010 squad won 12-straight games from April 27th to May 18th. The Eagles got three hits from Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.), including his 300th career base knock, but had to stave off a two-out ninth inning rally from the Dolphins.
The senior captain leads the offense with a .397 batting average, 14 doubles and 38 RBIs this season. The Eagles are hitting .289 as a squad this season and are second in the league with 72 doubles. Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.), who is approaching his 200th career hit, has been hot of late and is hitting .452 in his last seven games. The junior co-captain also recorded five of his 14 multi-hit games during that stretch.
Appalachian State's (24-7) season opened with a 2-1 loss against George Mason, but it has been nearly all wins from there on. The Mountaineers have lost just seven games this year with one coming in the opener of their series victory over #7 LSU. ASU broke into the national rankings after a sweep of The Citadel back in March and returned to the polls before winning the series against the College of Charleston.
The Mountaineers are hitting .311 on the year and rank first or second in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage in the conference. Daniel Kassouf leads the squad with 11 home runs and is hitting .377 with eight doubles and 36 RBIs. The senior designated hitter is slugging a SoCon-best .708 this season.
Georgia Southern will send an all right-handed rotation to the mound. Chris Beck will make his 9th start of the season on Friday night and will look to bounce back after a rough outing last year in Boone, N.C. The junior right-hander has struck out eight or more batters in his last five starts and is 3-0 with a 2.36 ERA at home this season. Ryan Arrowood will oppose Beck on the mound in the series opener. Arrowood is 5-0 with a 4.63 ERA this season and is coming off of a quality start in the 8-6 win over the College of Charleston.
Justin Hess and Will Middour round out the rotation and will face Seth Grant and Rob Marcello, respectively. Hess will tally his 20th career start and his third since returning to the weekend rotation on March 31st. The junior right-hander has gone five or more innings in three of his last four starts and struck out a career-high 12 batters last time out at Davidson.
