Kennesaw State Baseball Visits Panthersville

The 27-11 Georgia State Panthers baseball team hosts the 21-18 Kennesaw State Owls today at 6 PM for the 2nd and final matchup of the 2011 season. GSU defeated the Owls on March 23rd in Kennesaw by a score of 6-3 after a dominant outing by pitcher Will Campbell.

Freshman reliever and recent mid-week starter Sam Agnew-Wieland will get the start today for the Panthers. This will be his 3rd start of the season and he's 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA. Sam has a WHIP of 0.96 and has struck out 29 batters in 25 innings pitched (11 total appearances). Opposing batters are hitting just .202 on him for the season and have managed only 2 extra base hits, both doubles. Sam's wins have come against a powerful Mercer lineup and Alabama State.

The Owls will send sophomore Catlan Kendrick against Sam. Catlan is 1-0 with a 2.78 ERA and will also be making his 3rd start on the season and 11th total appearance. He's pitched 22.2 innings with a WHIP of 1.32 while opposing hitters are batting .274 against him. He' thrown 17 strikeouts on the season. Catlan pitched the 9th inning in the 6-3 GSU win and allowed 1 hit and walked 1 but allowed no runs to score.

The Georgia State lineup is hitting .314 as a team currently led by Mark Micowski who's hitting .369. Sophomore Drew Shields is now hitting .362 and has really stepped up for the Panthers during Joey Wood's injury. The team is scoring 7.7 runs per game on the season. Micowksi, Brandon Williams and Rob Lind all had a 3-hit game against the Owls in March.

KSU is hitting .278 as a team and has scored an average of 6.1 runs per game this season. Ronnie Freeman, who was 2-for-4 in the first game, leads the team with a .367 average. Ethan Herron also had a 2-for-4 day against the Panthers in March and is hitting .328 on the season. Home run leader Andy Chriscaden homered in the March meeting and drove in 2 runs. He still leads the KSU offense with 9 home runs and 45 RBIs.

I expect the Panthers to complete the season sweep over the Owls in front of the home crowd. GO PANTHERS!!!

Panthers Baseball at James Madison in CAA Play

Veterans Memorial Park @ James Madison University

This weekend's series features the expected 1st and 2nd place finishers in the CAA baseball standings for 2011 and will be a battle of the leagues best two offenses. The Panthers travel up to Virginia to take on the James Madison Dukes baseball team. With 3 out of 10 CAA series in the books for the season and a 5-4 record after such, this series is a must win series for the Panthers. The Dukes are tied for the lead in the CAA with a 10-5 record (.667 winning %). Of the five teams ahead of Georgia State (JMU, Delaware, UNCW, W&M and ODU) 4 including JMU are on the remaining schedule. This is good news because the Panthers have some control over their own destiny. It will take a series sweep for the Panthers to jump ahead of JMU in the standings.

Who: The James Madison University Dukes compete along with Georgia State in the CAA. They enter the series with a 21-9 record and 10-5 in the CAA. JMU returned 5 everyday starters from their 2010 team that finished 30-23 and 1st in the CAA at 18-6. A .750 CAA winning percentage will be tough to obtain as they would have to win 13 of the remaining 15 CAA games. With GSU, Delaware and UNCW on the schedule, I don't see this happening.

History/Common Opponents: JMU leads the all-time series by a dominate 14-2 advantage. Coach Frady has not been able to crack JMU as he's only 1-8 against them while at Georgia State with the lone win coming at home in Panthersville. GSU and JMU share 1 common opponent so far on the season, VCU. The Panthers lost 2-of-3 at home against VCU by scores of 11-8 (win), 6-10 (loss) and 8-17 (loss). The Dukes won 2-of-3 at home against VCU by scores of 12-8 (win), 2-4 (loss) and 4-1 (win). The Panthers scored more runs than JMU did against VCU however they also allowed more runs than JMU.

James Madison at the Plate: JMU enters the series 4th in NCAA team batting average, 2nd in runs scored (10.5 per game) and 1st in home runs and home runs per game. The Dukes are led offensively by 2010 standouts David Herbek (SS), Jake Lowery (C) and Alex Foltz (OF) whom all three are slugging over .600. David is hitting .385 with 12 home runs and slugging .812. He is 2nd on the team with 42 RBIs. Jake is hitting .379 with 16 home runs and 49 RBIs with a .911 slugging percentage. Alex hits .378 with 6 home runs and 22 RBIs, slugging .671. The Dukes have 58 home runs and are slugging .596 as a team, batting .338. Not only does the team have power but they have speed as well. They are 97-for-115 (85%) for stolen bases which is best in the CAA (and NCAA) over Georgia State by 34 stolen bases.

With all that said, this offense was only able to put up 16 runs in 3 games versus William & Mary one month ago. Georgia State and William & Mary are the CAA's leading pitching staffs and are very similar statistically. More on this in the pitching preview.

James Madison on the Mound: To say a team with a 21-9 record has a weakness sounds crazy, but pitching is the Duke's weakness. They are 2nd to last in the league with a 6.67 ERA and are allowing 7 runs per game. JMU pitching has allowed opposing batters a .284 average and have a WHIP of 1.7 which is tied for 2nd highest in the CAA. One of the major issues for JMU has been walks allowed. They are giving batters a free base nearly 6 times per game this season.

Weekend starters as follows:

Alex Valadja (Sr., LH) - Alex is 3-2 with a 7.50 ERA in 7 starts. He's pitched 42 innings and allowed 36 runs on 51 hits and 20 walks (WHIP 1.7). Opposing batters are hitting .304 against him and he's allowed 6 home runs. Alex pitched 7 innings and received the loss against VCU after allowing 4 runs off 7 hits and 3 walks. He threw 125 pitches in the outing so coach isn't afraid to leave him out there while he's pitching well. VCU score 1 run in the 2nd and 3rd and then he coasted until the 8th inning.

D.J. Brown (So., RH) - DJ is 4-0 with a 5.91 ERA in 7 starts. Similar numbers to Alex only he's allowed 16 walks and batters are hitting .293 against him. He's a strikeout threat with almost 1 per inning thus far. DJ pitched a complete game against VCU and earned the win while allowing only 1 run (unearned).

Evan Scott (Jr., RH) - Evan is 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA after 7 starts. Evan has had walk issues this season allowing 34 free bases in 38.1 innings pitched. However, batters are hitting just .231 against him. His numbers output a 1.7 WHIP. Evan pitched 4.2 innings against VCU and allowed 3 runs (all earned) off 3 hits and 3 walks.

The JMU relief staff has been more a weakness than the starters. They don't have a shut-down reliever so runs are possible after knocking out the starter. Their most effective reliever so far has been Trent Cundiff who's appeared in 10 games going 12.2 innings and allowed 8 runs. He has a 4.97 ERA and batters are .298 against him. The other go-to guys are Josh Futter (5.23 ERA), James Weiner (5.32 ERA) and Nick Slogik (5.91 ERA). The 7th inning has not been friendly to the pitching staff as that's their highest run total allowed with 32 runs allowed.

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers offense enters with a .319 team batting average and is tied for 2nd in the NCAA in doubles and 6th in runs scored. The offense is scoring almost 8 runs per game this season. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams still lead the team with a .408 and .386 batting average. Brett is slugging .602 and leads the team with 13 doubles on the year and a .492 on-base percentage. Mark Micowski is hitting .354 with 25 RBIs and Ryan Fleming is leading the team with 9 home runs and 35 RBIs. Joey Wood has been out with a minor back injury and was missed in the Delaware series, I'm trying to confirm his status for this weekend.

GSU on the Mound: The Panthers still have one of the best pitching staffs in the CAA. The team ERA of 4.40 is good for 2nd, behind W&M at 4.24. The Panthers are allowing 5.25 runs per game and opponents are hitting .270 against them. Weekend rotation as follows:

Will Campbell (Sr., RH) - Will gets a shot at the weekend rotation here giving Aidan Francis the chance to be used as a relief pitcher. Will takes the mound Friday with a CAA best 6-0 record. He is one of just 19 pitchers in the NCAA with 6 wins and one of just 13 with at least a 6-0 record. Will has 2.90 ERA and opposing batters have been dumbfounded at the plate hitting only .180 against him. His WHIP is currently 0.89.

Charley Olson (Sr., RH) - Charley has a 2-3 record yet just a 3.72 ERA. Charley has been plagued by lack of offensive support and defensive miscues. He is striking out almost 1 batter per inning and has allowed only 10 walks. Charley's WHIP is 1.34. Charley had a good outing against VCU going 6 innings and allowing only 2 earned runs however 4 runs were scored due to 5 Georgia State errors. He allowed just 1 walk and struck out 8 in the game. His last outing at Delaware was another that should have resulted in a win yet he was stuck with the loss after going 7 innings and allowing 5 runs (4 earned) due to 4 errors behind him. He walked just 1 and struck out 6.

Justin Malone (Jr., RH) - Justin will take the tail-end of the weekend with a 5-0 record. His ERA is 3.99 but batters have caught on to him recently as they're now .327 against him. He's struggled a little as of lately but had a decent game at Delaware. He went 5.2 innings allowing only 3 runs (2 earned) with no walks and 7 strikeouts. Justin has shown excellent command in his pitches this season as he's allowed just 7 walks in 38.1 innings. Even though Justin has had some shaky outings (against arguably good offenses) recently the Panthers are still 6-1 in the games he's started.

This is a tough series to call. It's a powerful and fast offense vs. great pitching (JMU vs. GSU) and a greatly efficient and relatively less powerful and fast offense vs. league low pitching. More times than not good pitching wins the battle against good hitting. William & Mary showed that good pitching can calm the offensive giant known as JMU. They allowed only 16 runs to the JMU bats and could have taken the series but they didn't (and still don't) have a good offense. They were able to score only 11 runs against the same group of starters we'll see this weekend. The Dukes scored 10 of their 16 runs in the final 3 innings against poor relievers so the W&M starters did a great job at keeping JMU at bay. We have equal if not better starters going against JMU this weekend so I expect at least the same by us.

I love the fact that Frady is giving Campbell the start today. He has earned it and Aidan needs a game to rest his head and start having fun again. I'm sure he'll still pitch in the series in a relief role.

Georgia State is still the "complete package" in the CAA with VCU and UNC Wilmingon being the next closest thing to it. On paper, GSU should be able to score more in this series than JMU because we both have good offenses but we're by far the better pitching team. Our pitching bests theirs by a bigger margin than their offense bests ours. Last note here will be about defense. Our infield absolutely must play clean baseball. They committed 6 errors against VCU and 5 against Delaware. You cannot give this JMU offense that many free passes here.

We need 2-of-3 here but that still won't put us back above JMU, a sweep is the only way to do that this weekend. Winning less than two is not an option. Go get 'em boys. GO PANTHERS!!!

Panthers Baseball Hosts Florida A&M

The Georgia State Panthers will look to start another winning streak against Florida A&M after dropping 2 consecutive games to VCU on Friday evening and Sunday. The Panthers enter today's game with a 20-6 record and despite the back-to-back conferences losses they are still receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 and the NCBWA polls.

Who: The Florida A&M (FAMU) Rattlers compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and enter today's game with a 8-20 record (0-3 MEAC). They completed the 2010 season with a 10-31-1 record. The Rattlers are a lacking veteran leadership as the team has only 6 seniors with just 1 being a pitcher.

History/Common Opponents: The Panthers lead the all-time series by 9-4 and have won 4 straight games. The last meeting between these two ball clubs was in 2009 when Georgia State completed a 2-game season sweep over the Rattlers by scores of 22-6 (in Tallahassee, FL) and 4-1 (at Panthersville). In the 2011 season both teams have played Mercer and Alabama State. GSU defeated Mercer 14-5 and Alabama State 14-4. FAMU has lost 4 games to Mercer this season by a combined score of 57-12. FAMU lost to Alabama State 12-10 last week.

FAMU at the Plate: The Rattlers are batting .268 as a team and scoring 4 runs per game. 80% of their hits come in form of singles and they have only 5 home runs after 840 at-bats on the season. Base stealing is not a huge threat as they have only 19 on the season. Junior outfielder Jarryd Reid is the Rattlers only starter (with over 20 game starts) hitting above .300, at .391. He is slugging .609 and accounts for 12% of the team's hits including 4 of the team's 9 triples. In addition, Jarryd is the team's leading base stealer with 5 steals in 7 attempts. Cory Franklin is leading the FAMU lineup in RBI's with 17 total on a .280 BA and 2 home runs.

FAMU on the Mound: The Rattlers give up over 8.5 runs per game on a 7.71 team ERA. Clean defense is not a strong point behind the pitching staff as the team has committed 76 errors on the season (nearly 3 per game). The starting pitcher is not yet known but only 2 pitchers have below a 5.40 ERA. Thomas Barwick who has 5 starts with a 2-2 record and 3.58 ERA and reliever Steven Dollar with 11 appearances and 16 innings pitched. Dollar has allowed 12 runs (6 earned) and is 1-0. Opposing batters are hitting .324 against the FAMU pitching staff and have belted 19 home runs in 28 games.

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers are batting .316 as a team and continue to be led by Brett Maxwell at .408 and Brandon Williams at .394. GSU is scoring just under 8 runs per game. Ryan Fleming continues to prove himself as the GSU power threat with now 6 home runs on the season and a team-high 29 RBI's. Fleming is slugging .667 on the season and has an on-base percentage near .500. The offense continues to be on a roll, not scoring under 6 runs since March 12th against Towson (5 scored) and under 8 runs only twice (both games scored 6) since then in 10 games. The Panthers are scoring 10.5 runs per game in that stretch. It seems as if the team has been able to adjust their offensive game plan to the new NCAA regulation bats.

GSU on the Mound: Over the same 10-game stretch mentioned above, the pitching staff has allowed 7.3 runs per game. This is being pulled up by a 10 run game against Murray State and VCU and a 17 run explosion by VCU this past Sunday. The team ERA was boosted (in a bad way) by the VCU series, now up to 4.28 on the season. The season average for runs allowed is still just above 5 which seems to be a number you can count on barring a pitching melt-down.

Will Campbell will get the start for the Panthers. Will is having an outstanding season so far with a 5-0 record on a 3.13 ERA. He has pitched 37.1 innings and allowed only 13 runs. Opposing batters are hitting only .180 against him. He has a WHIP of .88 and 22 strikeouts on the season. Will went 7.1 innings in his last outing against Kennesaw State last Wednesday and allowed 3 runs on only 4 hits. Two of those runs came after Will left the game leaving runners on 1st and 2nd. Look for the relief staff to get some work in to boost their confidence after having a rough VCU series.


Look for a lopsided score today as the Panthers should be able to pound on the Rattlers pitching staff. This will be important as the Panthers travel to Delaware for a 3-game CAA series Friday-Sunday. You want to enter that series feeling confident about seeing the ball well at the plate. I expect Will to have another stellar night on the mound. He's facing a far inferior opponent compared to his last outing so he just needs to cruise along at the same pace. The Panthers probably win tonight by setting a new season-high for run differential. This currently stands at 11 from the 17-6 victory over Murray State. GO PANTHERS!!!

Baseball Conference Play Kicks-Off with Towson

The Georgia State Panthers (10-4, 0-0 CAA) will face Towson (4-6-1, 0-0 CAA) in a 3-game CAA series matchup over tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Game times are at 6 PM, 1PM and 12 PM respectively

Who: The Towson Tigers are fellow CAA members and are 4-6-1 (0-0 CAA) coming into this weekend's matchup. The Tigers returned 19 players from the 2010 season, 7 position players and 12 pitchers. They come with an experienced infield led by 3 seniors (1B, SS, 3B) which is reflected in their CAA best 12 errors and 2nd best fielding percentage. The Tiger's pitching staff is the opposite story. Two of their top 3 most used starting pitchers from the 2010 season were lost to graduation and their leader in saves was lost to the MLB 2010 Draft (Toronto). To make matters worse in the pitching staff only 1 of 4 of the top newcomers has been able to positively contribute to the pitching efforts to-date. The other 3 have been hit hard in their outings.

Towson at the Plate: Returning senior starters Chris Wychock (3B) and Nick Natoli (SS) are leading the Tigers on offense. Chris is hitting .366 with 8 RBI's and 2 HR's and has 5 doubles, all of which are team leading numbers. Nick is hitting .344 with 4 doubles, a triple and only 1 RBI. Nick also holds 3 of Towson's 9 stolen bases. As we've seen in previous opponents, Towson is missing power and speed. They have only 5 home runs and have been successful in only 10 of 20 stolen base attempts. If you don't have power or speed your offense needs to be hitting well above Towson's team average of .258 in order to produce runs. They have been scoring about 5 runs per game this season which places them almost in the bottom of the CAA. Overall, there's not too much to be afraid of in this Towson lineup.

Towson on the Mound: The Tigers pitching staff is allowing over 8 runs per game this season which places Towson at the bottom of the CAA. Their team ERA of 6.56 is good for 2nd worst as is their 10 home runs allowed.

Tiger Starters are as follows:

Sean Thompson (RH, So.) is 0-2 after 3 starts posting a 5.40 ERA. He has only lasted through 11.2 innings allowing 10 runs on 11 hits. He is walking 1 of 6 batters faced and has 9 strikeouts. Thompson throws a very good curve ball to keep hitters off-balance.

Charlie Cononie (RH, Sr.) is 6'7" and features a fastball with great movement. He has progressively moved into a starter role coming into this season. Through 3 starts he is 1-2 with a 4.60 ERA after 15.2 innings pitched. He has allowed 8 runs on 14 hits and batters are hitting only .230 against him. Low offensive production has been his enemy this season. His strikeouts have been his best friend. Charlie has sent almost 40% of batters faced back to the dugout by way of strikeout with 23 K's on the season.

Michael Trionfo (RH, So.) started against Georgia State last season as a freshman and received a no-decision after pitching 4.2 innings in the Tigers win. Michael is 0-1 after 2 starts with a 7.82 ERA. He has been hit hard for 12 runs on 19 hits in 12.2 innings. Batters are hitting .352 against him. Michael has great command of his pitches and features a great curve ball with overall good control.

Once the starters give way to the bullpen batters really begin to light up the Towson pitching staff. Most of their relievers are being hit for well over .300 and in most cases .350-.400. Spencer Patton has been the most used and most successful reliever. Hitters are .343 against him, he has 9 strikeouts and has given up 5 runs through 8.1 innings.

GSU at the Plate: Watch out for infielder Brandon Williams as he's been on a tear lately. Named CAA Player of the Week, he has batted .478 in his last six games and five of them coming against power conference teams. He is now hitting .348 on the season with 5 RBI's and 4 for 5 in stolen bases. Outfielder Brett Maxwell is leading the Panthers with a .474 batting average and also leads the team with 5 doubles. The Panthers are batting .272 as a team and are still struggling to get, and keep, this number above .300. With that said they remain a top 3 offense in the CAA and are 3rd in the CAA with 6 runs per game. James Madison and George Mason remain a larger offensive producer than the Panthers but with CAA play starting, these numbers should normalize and we'll get a better picture of where we all stand.

GSU on the Mound: Pitching has been the Panthers strength in the 2011 season. GSU leads the CAA in team ERA at 2.82 and also in runs allowed per game at 4.5. The staff has the 2nd best opposing batting average at .224 with Old Dominion performing only .003 points better.

Starters as follows:

Justin Malone (RH, Jr.) takes the mound Friday with a 0.47 ERA after 3 starts and a 3-0 record. Justin has been just outstanding for the team in the 2011 season. He has thrown 19 innings and allowed 1 earned run, 4 runs total. His walks and hits per inning is 1.0 and has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3:1. Batters are hitting only .235 against him.

Charley Olsen (RH, Sr.) makes his 3rd start on Saturday with a 3.29 ERA and a 1-2 record. Charley has been a victim of some messy defense. Of his 10 runs allowed through 13.2 innings (which includes a 4.2 inning relief effort) only 5 runs are earned. Batters are hitting .288 against him which is the team high for starters. However, Charley is striking out 1 batter per inning and has kept his walks down to 3 on the season. Saturday features the best pitching matchup with two Charley's going to the mound (spelling is different) so he'll need to have a good game which I think we can count on.

Aidan Francis (LH, Sr.) takes the mound for the last game of the series. Aidan is 2-0 with a 3.68 ERA after 3 starts. Aidan earned the win in a great pitching effort last week against Georgia Tech after pitching 7 innings. Aidan has allowed 6 runs in his 14.2 innings pitched but 4 of the runs came during the Mercer game where he allowed 3 HR's against the powerful lineup. That is his only blemish on the season thus far. His weapon has been strikeouts as he's fanned 17 and walked only 4. Aidan has been an authority on the mound this season, look for this to continue against Towson.

Even though the Panthers are 4-8 against Towson under Coach Frady, these are different teams and I expect a 3-game sweep this weekend. Saturday is my only question mark due to the pitching matchup but it's a small question mark. I think Charley (the good guy) will come out and pitch a good game and we'll get into the Towson bullpen to put up some runs.

Here are some keys against this Towson team. The Panthers offense needs to watch the strikeouts. The first two pitchers they face have good strikeout numbers. Don't let them give you only 2 outs to work with each inning. The Panther pitchers just need to keep doing what they've done all season. Sounds simple, but that's a large reason why the team is 10-4 with wins over Mercer, GT and Iowa. The offense needs to make the Tiger starting pitchers work hard. Get into the bullpen and rack up some runs. Don't let these guys have 8 and 10 pitch innings.

GO PANTHERS!!!

GSU Baseball Comes Home to Play UNC Asheville

Who: UNC Asheville Bulldogs (4-6), compete in the NCAA DI Big South Conference. The Bulldogs enter play with a 4-6 record and sitting on a 6-game losing streak. With only 8 of 34 roster players being seniors and 15 of 34 as freshman, the Bulldogs are a young team. The UNCA pitching staff has only 3 senior pitchers and only one, Grier Harrington has started a game this season.

Previous Season: UNCA finished the 2010 season with a 17-35 record and 7th (out of 10) in their conference. The Panthers are 7-4 against the Bulldogs and are riding a 3-game winning streak over the team. The Bulldogs most recent memory of the Panthers is a 17-2 loss from last March at Panthersville.

UNCA on the Mound: The starters are currently unknown. The Bulldogs pitching staff is sitting near the bottom of the Big South Conference in performance. The team ERA is 5.82, giving up a total of 77 runs (55 earned) through their 10 games (7.7 runs per game). They have two strikeout threats, reliever Grier Harrington who I think is a possible starter and Ryan Dull. Both Harrington and Dull throw near 1 K/IP. Of the starters with more than 1 game starts the ERA is much higher, near 8.00, and batters are hitting over .300 against 3 of the 4 pitchers. It's fair to say the Bulldogs relievers are performing better than the starters to this point.

UPDATE: Grier Harrington, Robert McIntosh and Elliot Criss are possible starters for the Bulldogs. Harrington is 1-1 after 5 appearances and 1 start with a 3.38 ERA. He has a walk-to-strikout ratio of over 3.0 and would be the toughest pitcher we face of the three. McIntosh is 0-0 after starting 2 games, ERA is 4.50 after being touched for 3 runs in 6 innings of work. Batters are hitting .263 against him. Elliot Criss is 0-1 after 2 game starts and pitching only 4.2 innings in the outings. Batters enjoyed his time on the mound as they hit .348 against him and brought in 14 runs. He leads the team in hit batters with 6. That's over 1 per innings guys, watch out.

UNCA at the Plate: The Bulldogs have player who's started all 10 games and three others who've started 9 of 10, catcher Ian Graham and infielders Danny Baatz, Jordan Lurie and Cody Buch. The four mentioned players are hitting at or above .300 on the season with a combined 24 RBI's. There is not much of a power threat on the team, only 1 HR to-date. Stealing only 8 bases and recording 2 triples shows they're not using much speed on the bases either. Starting pitcher Robert McIntosh (fr.) has played middle infield while not pitching and has hit .458 through 7 games with 24 at-bats. He holds the team's highest average as well as the highest slugging percentage at .542. The team is scoring 7 runs per game through the first 10.

GSU on the Mound: Aidan Francis will start Tuesday's game, the Wednesday starter is currently unknown. (I'm sure this is because this weekend the Panthers start conference play against Towson and the coaches are trying to properly align the starters to get the best guys out there for the 3-game home series.) Aidan (ERA 4.63) is coming off a great start where he earned the win against a ranked Georgia Tech team allowing only 2 runs on 7 hits in 7 innings pitched. He recorded 6 strikeouts while walking nobody. Aidan currently leads the team with 14 strikeouts through 11.2 innings pitched and a starter-low 2 walks on the season. Batters are hitting .260 against him and the only stumble encountered was when he allowed 3 HR's (4 runs) against a powerful Mercer team earlier in the season. I expect Aidan to continue dominating on the mound and attacking hitters hard early in the count. The team ERA still remains below 3.00 even after facing 5 straight games against power conference teams.

GSU at the Plate: Speaking of power conference teams, 3rd baseman Brandon Williams enjoyed the increased competition at the plate. He hit .474 during last week against Georgia Tech, Iowa and Mississippi State. There were some great pitchers faced in that stretch, good job Brandon. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams lead the way at the plate with a .474 and .333 batting average respectively. Mark Micowski has 12 RBI's on the season is hitting a touch below .300. The impressive part about Micowski's 12 RBI's is that the bottom of the lineup is getting on base for him consistently to allow him to drive in the runs. The Panthers continue to use speed on the bases as they are up to 24 steals on the season (29 attempts). I expect this lineup to find comfort at the plate as they return home and face favorable pitching through the week. I'll be surprised if they don't put up some big numbers.

The keys for the Panthers in this series are to enjoy being back at home, relax at the plate as they shouldn't see anything too intimidating and for the pitchers to continue doing what they've done this season. Sounds simple right? The Panthers success against UNCA continues this week and we should be sitting at 11-4 with the offensively anemic Towson coming into town for a weekend 3-game series. GO PANTHERS!!!

Georgia State Baseball to Mississippi State Tournament

First let me say this will be a long one as we go into the weekend to face two opponents so there is twice the info to cover. Sit back and enjoy...

The Panthers baseball team will be playing against Iowa and Mississippi State University in the Mississippi State Tournament this weekend. The tournament will feature a double round-robin play system where each team will face each other twice. MSU's Dudy Noble Field acts as the host stadium for the tournament.

GSU will face Iowa on Friday at 12:00 PM, MSU on Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday is a doubleheader against Iowa at 12:00 PM and MSU at 3:30 PM.

Iowa Hawkeyes

The Iowa Hawkeyes compete in the Big Ten Conference and currently stands at 1-4 on the season. The Hawkeyes finished the 2010 season tied for 3rd in the conference and have bee picked to finish 5th in the 2011 season. This will be the first meeting between the two schools. GSU has faced only one Big Ten school in the past when they defeated Michigan State in 2009.

The Iowa pitching staff is sitting at a 3.20 ERA through the first 5 games giving up 18 runs on the season, 3.6 runs per game. Unfortunately their offense has plated only 12 runs or 2.4 per game and that is a recipe for a bad season.

Probably starters for the Hawkeyes are as follows:

Friday we should see sophomore right hander Ricky Sandquist (6-4, 185). This will be Ricky's 3rd appearance but 1st start in his college career. He is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA (1 earned run on 2 hits) after pitching only 1.2 innings so probably still not in his groove. Ricky pitched the 2010 season from the bullpen, appearing 16 times and finishing with a 8.14 ERA through 21 innings pitched. Ricky has a fastball touching the low-90's.

Sunday, Iowa should be sending out sophomore lefty Matt Dermody (6-5, 200). Matt is 0-2 with a 4.15 ERA on the season. He has pitched 8.2 innings and allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits with 5 walks and 9 strikeouts. Batters are hitting only .188 against him. Matt was selected by the Pirates in the MLB 2009 Draft (Round 29) with a fastball sitting near 90 with good action. He also has an above-average change-up he can throw to keep hitters off balance.

Now we visit Iowa's problem area. The team is hitting .195 at the plate with no power so far in the 2011 season. They are striking out twice as many times as they're taking walks and they're not stealing many bases. The highest batting average among their starters, .222 and 3RBI's. To have this type of average over the 5-game stretch, you have to assume they're just not seeing the ball well right now as running into 5 hot pitchers in a row is tough to do in college ball.

How do I see the Panthers stacking up against Iowa? With Justin Malone going in the first game against Iowa and Will Campbell in the 2nd, the pitching advantage goes to GSU. Malone has yet to give up a run after 2 starts and 13 innings pitched. Batters are only hitting .239 against him. His walks and hits per inning is below 1.0 at .92. If Malone is on his game, the Iowa lineup will be hard-pressed to get much from him. Even if Malone is twice as bad as his WHIP he's still giving less than 2 hits/walks per inning and because Iowa hasn't shown they like to steal bases, you're not scoring much off that. Will Campbell is 2-0 with a 2.77 ERA after also pitching 13 innings. Both pitchers have 6 strikeouts but Campbell has given 6 free bases to hitters. However, Campbell has allowed only 7 hits so his WHIP is sitting exactly at 1.0 and batters are hitting only .175 against him. Iowa will need our pitchers to be off their game in order to score enough runs to win.

Our offense has been somewhat tough to predict due to inconsistent play. They're coming off a recent game of seeing a 6-6 pitcher throwing a fastball in the low-to-mid 90's so seeing the ball should be easy for them. If the guys, especially Mark Micowski, are able to pickup where they left off against Georgia Tech it will be a long day for the Iowa pitchers. The fielders are coming off an excellent game so let's hope that also continues.

Mississippi State Bulldogs

The MSU Bulldogs compete in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and currently have a record of 8-1. All games thus far played at home and their lone loss coming against Belmont where they went down by a low score of 1-2. MSU is coming off a 23-33 record on the 2010 season and was picked to finish sixth in the SEC Western Division for 2011. GSU has not fared well against SEC opponents in the past, under Coach Frady they are 0-10 but have not yet faced the MSU Diamond Dogs.

The MSU pitching staff is giving up an average of 2 runs per game this season and the offense is scoring a little over 8, thus their 8-1 record.

The probable starters are currently unknown so here's a rundown on their whole staff. The team ERA currently sits at 2.00. Their starters are 5-1 in their 9 games played. They have only one pitcher who has given up more than 3 runs total on the season, Chad Girodo who has started 1 game and appeared in 2 and given up 4 runs in 6 innings. The team is striking out batters and not giving much for walks, their team WHIP is .86. That's low folks. GSU compares at 1.1 which is also low but obviously MSU is doing better here. I know we will NOT see starter Devin Jones as he starts Friday for MSU against Iowa. This is a break for GSU as Jones has thrown 15 innings and given up only 2 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks.

MSU is currently 2nd in the SEC in team batting average at .338. They have hit 7 home runs and are 11-for-16 in stolen bases. They're slugging .480, their extra base hits are accounting for about 1-of-4 total hits. GSU is doing better here hitting about 2-of-5 for extra bases. MSU appears to be patient at the plate as they have one more walk than strikeout as a team.

It's worth noting that MSU has played clean defense through their first 9 games. They've only committed 4 errors, showing off a .988 fielding percentage.

I think MSU has benefited from their early season schedule and will likely be brought back to Earth once SEC play begins for them. The SEC currently holds 7 of the 30 spots in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Top 30, 4 being in the top 10. However, these two games will be an excellent test for Georgia State and will show the Panthers where they are as a program.

GSU will be sending Nick Squeglia and Charley Olsen to the mound against MSU. Nick is 1-0 through 2 starts and has not given up a run in his 11 innings pitched. He has a WHIP of .63 and batters are hitting only .135 against him. It's hard not to love your chances with numbers like that going to the mound. Charley is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA. Charley was the victim of a mad Western Illinois batting lineup and a messy defensive effort by the Panthers. He's given up 5 runs but only 2 earned in 8.2 innings. Charley appeared in relief during the Mercer game and has set down 8 batters by way of strikeout.

Without knowing the MSU starting pitchers it's tough to call how we'll do against them. I think the pitching matchups will be key here. Right now, I would say going 1-1 against them is likely considering who is not and should not be starting for them. I feel good with Nick and Charley on the mound for GSU. The performance of the entire GSU pitching staff has been nothing short of outstanding so that's a big confidence booster for the team. About the Panthers offense, again, they're coming off a great game. If they're able to continue the momentum they should be fine. It's safe to say they won't be facing a pitcher with greater potential than Matt Grimes (Georgia Tech starter) during this weekend and they were able to put 4 runs on him. Mark Micowski, Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams all had multi-hit games against Tech on Wednesday.

Good luck to Coach Frady and his team during this tournament. Splitting with MSU at Dudy Noble would be a great follow-up to beating Georgia Tech at Russ Chandler.

***UPDATE***

Possible starter for game 1 versus MSU is right hand sophomore Chris Stratton. Chris was selected to the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2010 and was a weekend starter for MSU as a freshman. He's off to a blazing start this season with similar numbers to his GSU counterpart Nick Squeglia.

ERA: Nick 0.00 / Chris 0.00
W-L: Nick 1-0 in 2 games / Chris 2-0 in 2 games
Innings Pitched: Nick 11 / Chris 13.2
WHIP: Nick 0.63 / Chris 0.83
Opposing Batting Average: Nick .135 / Chris .200
Extra Base Hits Allowed: Nick 0 / Chris 2

Here is the difference, Nick has 5 strikouts and Chris has struck out 23 of 50 batters faced. Wow. That's almost 2 per inning based on his innings pitched. According to his coach, Chris has a 92 mph fastball that he's able to locate well almost all the time. He also has a "big, slow breaking curve." Apparently he's also mature beyond his years. Those are all the same things said about the pitcher just faced in Matt Grimes.

GSU Baseball's Micowski Earns More Praise

Photo courtesy of: Georgia State Sports Communications

"Big Expectations" for $800, Alex...

Earned titles of CAA baseball's "best defensive outfielder", one of "three best pure hitters", "toughest hitter to strike out" and "best base-runner".

If you answered "Who is Mark Micowski of Georgia State" you are correct.

According to a recent survey of CAA coaches by College Baseball Insider, GSU outfielder Mark Micowski earned top spot for each of the above mentioned superlatives for the upcoming 2011 baseball season. This is yet another nod towards Mark and his performance abilities as well as the Georgia State baseball team.

It's also worth nothing that Jr. infielder Brandon Williams was also one of "three best pure hitters" (making 2 of 3 from GSU) and "three biggest power threats". Sr. outfielder Ryan Flemming joined Williams as a biggest power threat as well (2 of 3 from GSU here as well).

If you haven't had enough, Mark Micowski was also noted in the "Others to Watch" list from Top College Baseball Outfielders to Watch in 2011 on CollegeBaseball360.com.

The Panthers will open the season against Texas Southern in 10 days at Panthersville.