The Panthers won 3 of 4 games in this weekend's matchup against the Western Illinois Leathernecks, moving their record to 7-1 heading into the mid-week game versus Georgia Tech. I can sum up the games with the following words: Great pitching, bullpen collapse, good hitting, errors.
Let's start with game 1. Despite plating only 3 runs on 4 hits, the Panthers win thanks to the new status quo from the pitching staff. Starter Justin Malone went 7 innings and gave up only 4 hits while striking out 5. Again, Malone was in control of his game and he attacked the strike zone hard. Jeremy Gazerro and Ben Marshall would come in to allow no hits to close out the game. Mark Micowski blasted a 2-run HR and Joey Wood would contribute the 3rd RBI for the offense.
Game 2 gave us more excellent starting pitching and would show us the bats coming around. Starter Nick Squeglia goes 6 innings allowing no runs on 2 hits. Ryan Flemming and Shane Hammond both had 2 hits for the Panthers and six other batters would contribute 1 hit each. The Panthers went into the 8th inning leading 7-0 and it was looking like yet another shutout for the pitching staff. Wrong. Relievers Tyler Claburn, Wes Grant and Ben Marshall would like to forget about their appearances in this game. Over the 8th and 9th inning the Leathernecks scored 7 earned runs tying the game at 7-7 forcing extra innings. Newcomer Jake Dyer would be the pitching staff's savior for the game as he stepped in to pitch 3.2 innings keeping the Leathernecks offense once again at-bay. Dyer has now thrown 5.2 innings of relief work allowing only 3 hits. He's been a great pickup thus far. Another newcomer would be the offensive hero of the game as in the bottom of the 12th, Drew Shields brought home Shane Hammond on a hit to left-center.
The bats would continue working well during game 3 (game 2 of the Saturday double header) and Will Campbell pitched well enough through 6 innings to earn the win. The top and bottom of the batting order proved to be potent in this game. The Panthers bats racked up 11 runs on 11 hits and 5 of the 11 hits were for extra bases including a home run for Joey Wood. Brandon Bast came in to relieve starter Will Campbell in the 7th and continued to give up hits. Brandon has been hit for .500 through his 2 innings worked however has allowed only 2 runs thanks to timely outs and great defense behind him.
Game 4. *Long Sigh* It was "one of those days" at the ballpark. There's not much to say about this game that's positive. The bats managed to squeeze out 8 hits yet non were very timely as the offense only plated 2 runs. Leathernecks starter Dan Russell does deserve credit here as the Panthers were just not able to do much off him. They were swinging under most of his pitches or flat out missing. He left the game after 6 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits. Georgia State starter Charley Olsen, and the rest of the pitching staff, had a different day thanks to 4 errors on defense. Out of the Leathernecks 8 runs only 2 were earned, both going to Olsen. Let's work on clean fielding and pick off moves and move on. Freshman Sam Agnew-Wieland does deserve a hand for stepping in for Olsen and going 3.1 innings allowing only 2 hits and striking out 5 in the process. He's been nothing but solid through 5.1 innings of relief work in 2 games as he's allowed only 2 hits.
The Panther's starting pitching staff went 23.2 innings and allowed only 5 earned runs. Starting pitching continues to be the bright spot for this team in the 2011 season.
Georgia State marches into Russ Chandler on Wednesday with a 7-1 record. You can't be unhappy with that 8 games into the season. Georgia Tech is sitting on a 5-3 record with loses to Kent State, Georgia Southern, and #23 ranked St. John's.
I'll have a more high level analysis on how the team stands coming soon.
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