Georgia Southern's baseball team, the defending Southern Conference Tournament champion, will begin conference play at 4 p.m. today against Elon, the defending SoCon regular-season champion, in Elon, N.C.
    GSU starter Chris Beck will take the mound today against Elon's Kyle Webb in the first game of the three-game series at Latham Park.
    GSU's Jarret Leverett and Justin Hess will both crack the weekend rotation for the first time this year and will face Elon's Dylan Clark and Spencer Medick at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, respectively.
    Leverett, who will make his first start of the season, has a 1-0 record and a 2.08 earned-run average in four appearances out of the bullpen this year.
    GSU (7-6, 0-0) is coming off a 10-1 victory over Charleston Southern on Tuesday and is looking for its fifth straight conference-opening series victory.
    The Eagles picked up their second win in as many tries with 10 unanswered runs against the Buccaneers. GSU bounced back from trailing after the fourth inning for just the second time this season with seven runs in the middle innings.
    GSU's Eric Phillips leads the offense with a .473 batting average, seven doubles and 19 RBIs. The senior captain continues to climb the career batting average list and currently sits in sixth place with a .366 career average. Phillips has hit in every game this season and holds a 14-game hitting streak.
    Behind Michael Burruss' 10 walks, Georgia Southern has posted a SoCon-best .404 on-base percentage. The Eagles also are atop the league in hits with 139. They are second in doubles with 28 and first in total bases. Burruss walked just 25 times in his career prior to this season but is already on pace for 43 base on balls this year.
    Elon (7-5, 2-1) opened conference play last week on the road with College of Charleston and won two games in the three-game series.
    The Phoenix dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 6 North Carolina on Wednesday. They were held to three hits in the loss.
    Elon's Jake Luce leads the offense with a .293 batting average. Elon's pitching staff has carried the load with a 2.52 ERA and has received great starting pitching. Clark is 3-1 with a 1.66 ERA over 21.2 innings this season.
    All games can be heard on Boomer 103.7 FM.