KENNESAW — The Georgia Southern Baseball team (25-16, 13-4) completed the season sweep of Kennesaw State (24-20) with an 11-7 victory, its first of the season on Wednesday. The Eagles tallied 15 hits and took advantage of two Owl errors to score the 11 runs. Five GSU hitters recorded multi-hit games with four of the five top-five hitters in the lineup accounting for most of them.

Shawn Payne recorded a baseball career highlight reel after tallying four hits including a double in the ninth inning to complete the cycle. Payne homered in the fourth and was aided by a building that is in play in left field that kept a ball in the field for his triple in the sixth. He singled in the seventh and doubled in the ninth for the first cycle by an Eagle since 2009. Ty Wright tallied the last cycle for Georgia Southern against Wofford two years ago on this same date.

Georgia Southern jumped ahead 3-1 in the third inning and added three more runs over the next two frames to lead 6-3 after the fifth inning. Kennesaw State scored a single run in the third inning and scored two more in the fourth inning. The Eagles batted around in the seventh inning to extend their lead to 10-4 after scoring four runs. GSU added on an 11th run in the eighth inning on a throwing error during a rundown play. The Owls got two more runs in the ninth inning to pull to the final score of 11-7.

The Eagles nearly batted around in the third inning, sending eight batters to the plate. Three walks were issued to GSU batters and all three came around to score. Eric Phillips drove in two with a base hit to left-center field and the third was driven in by Steve Cochrane on a sacrifice fly.

Payne drove in two more runs in the fourth inning with a two-out home run. Brent Pugh doubled after two quick outs were recorded and scored on the homer. A solo shot by Cochrane in the fifth inning, again with two outs, gave the Eagles a 6-3 lead.

GSU batted around in the seventh inning scoring four runs on six hits. The inning began with an unassuming ground out before four-straight batters put hits on the board. A solo homer by Victor Roache, his 20th of the season, started the scoring in the frame. A single and two doubles by Tom Richardson and Scooter Williams scored two more runs, before the RBI single by Pugh drove in the fourth run.

Both teams used nearly their whole pitching staffs in the contest and a combined 16 different pitchers threw in the game. Will Middour picked up his third win of the season with two scoreless innings. Middour (W, 3-1) allowed just one hit, no runs and walked two in his fourth start of the year. Sean Fream (L, 1-4) was tagged with the loss after giving up three runs on two hits in 2.1 innings of work.

Georgia Southern continues its road trip at UNC Greensboro for a Southern Conference three-game series. Play starts on Friday at 6 p.m. and will conclude with single games on Saturday and Sunday, both set for 1 p.m.