Georgia State Sweeps Hofstra Pride

What a great weekend for the Georgia State Panthers baseball team! Not only did the Panthers sweep the Hofstra Pride, but the Panthers were the biggest winners in the standings this weekend.

Quick Weekend Recap: The Panthers starting pitching was hot again this weekend. Great time of year to get on a hot streak too! Aidan Francis was able to get 2.2 innings of clean work in on Friday night. This is great for Aidan, we need him to be back on his game in this final month of play. On Saturday, Will Campbell went the distance for a 4-hit complete game shutout which was the 2nd in 1 week after Charley Olson shutout Northeastern the prior Saturday. That shutout was a school-record 7th on the season. Sunday would see more great pitching from Justin Malone as he went 7.1 innings and allowed 3 runs yet did not factor in the decision. Sunday's 24th home win is also a new record for Georgia State (prior record of 23 completed in 2008 and 2010). Jake Dyer earned two saves over the weekend and the relief pitching did not give up any runs to the Hofstra Pride.

The Panther bats piled up 49 hits on the weekend to produce 31 runs. Mark Micowski and Rob Lind are hot at the plate right now and this team is going to score runs when these two are on their game. Mark went 8-for-12 at the plate with 3 walks and 3 RBIs. Rob went 10-for-13 with 8 RBIs. Another note, Ryan Fleming hit a monster home run over the right field scoreboard and they're still waiting for it to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. That blast was Ryan's 12th on the season.

The Panthers will travel to Wilmington this coming weekend for an important series with UNC-Wilmington. Hopefully this will be the first of two trips the Panthers make to Brooks Field in May.

Will Campbell is Too Much for the Owls, Panthers Win

Will Campbell was dealing last night

Photo Courtesy of GSU Sports Communications

The Panthers Move to 19-4 on the season as Will Campbell went 7.1 strong innings to down the Owls, Panthers winning 6-3.

The star of the game is undoubtedly Will Campbell. Will pitched with excellence like he has in every other game he's pitched this season. He allowed only 4 hits and 3 runs (2 coming after he left the game) walking just 2 batters and striking out 2. His WHIP (walks & hits per inning) is now down to .88 on the season and batters are hitting only .180 against him. Those are numbers you expect to see in a shut down 9th inning closer, not your starting pitcher. Will is now a CAA-leading 5-0 on the season with an ERA of 3.13. Jake Dyer entered in the bottom of the 8th with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. He finished the game allowing 2 hits and a walk and he struck out three in the outing. Jake continues to impress on the mound.

The Panthers collected 13 hits and 5 walks at the plate off of 4 KSU pitchers. Mark Micowski continued his hot hitting going 3-for-6, scored twice and picked up his 5th steal. Micowski is now hitting .347 on the season. Rob Lind and Brandon Williams also had a 3-hit evening for the Panthers. Brandon has pulled his average up almost .100 over the past two weeks and Rob appears to have found his swing as he's working to get back near his 2010 batting performance. Despite the win, leaving men on base was an issue last night as 13 were left stranded.

The Panthers team batting average is now up to .317. This is a huge improvement over a couple weeks back when the team was well below .300. The Panthers pitching staff remains top in the CAA with a 3.53 ERA and 4.3 runs allowed per game.

Up next for the Panthers is fellow CAA member VCU. VCU is 7-12 on the season and brings an offense and pitching staff sitting near the middle of the pack in the CAA. I believe their record shows worse than the team actually is. We'll look at them more in depth in the series preview coming soon.

Panthers Open CAA-Play with Sweep over Towson

The Panthers baseball team opened their 2011 conference play in the best possible fashion by sweeping the Towson Tigers in a 3-game series at Panthersville. There was no better way to return the favor to Towson after they swept the Panthers in the 2010 season. The Panthers are now 13-4 on the season and 3-0 in the CAA.

Ryan Flemming had a great offensive showing in the series with 3 hits and 8 walks in 15 at-bats. That's a .429 batting average and a .733 on-base percentage. Ryan also accounted for 6 RBI's in the series with a 3-run home run during game 3. Rob Lind also had a great series going 6-for-8 (.750 BA) and drawing 7 walks for a .867 on-base percentage. A congratulations goes to Theo Asher for hitting his first home run as a Panther in the 5th inning. He hit a solo shot off a 3-2 pitch in the 5th inning to open the Panther's lead to 8-4.

The Panther's relief pitchers stepped up big when called upon this weekend only allowing 1 (earned) run in their 11.2 innings pitched during the 3 games. The lone run came off typical starter Will Campbell as he relieved Charley Olsen for 3 innings to earn the win in Saturday's victory. Justin Malone proved he is human after all and allowed 5 runs in his Friday start after going 5.1 innings. He had 6 K's and 2 walks in the outing. Nick Squeglia entered in relief for Justin and pitched 3 innings allowing only 2 hits. Jake Dyer would earn the win in his 1.2 innings of perfect relief.

Charley Olsen started Saturday's game and went 6 innings of what felt like a rough outing however he allowed only 3 runs in the game. His issue came from 4 walks and the Towson hitters getting clutch hits. Charley showed his composure through his jams and even through a pick-off to 1st to and a 5th inning scoring threat. Previous to the pick-off, Brett Maxwell gunned down a runner at home coming from 2nd base on a single to center field.

Aidan Francis pitched 5 innings in Sunday's win allowing 6 runs (5 earned) on 9 hits and allowed only 1 walk. Jeremy Gazerro and Jake Dyer pitched 4 innings of combined no-run relief allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk.

The Panthers are now sitting in 1st place in the CAA.

This week's opponents feature Alabama State (4-5-1), Harvard (0-8) and Murray State (8-7) all at Panthersville. The Panthers are 8-0 against Alabama State under Frady and have not faced Harvard or Murray State under Frady.

GSU Baseball Checkup 2/28/2011

With the first full week of the season in the books I'd like to take a look at where the Panthers stand and compare to the rest of the CAA.

First off, the baseball Panthers are 7-1 through the first 8 games of the 2011 season. In comparison to last year that's 5 wins better, even if you remove the opening series against #7 ranked FSU it's 2 wins better. The top three teams in the CAA are currently GSU @ 7-1, James Madison @ 7-1 and George Mason @ 6-2.

I think the obvious statement of the season so far would be this: the new bat rule IS affecting offensive production. The Panthers scored 72 runs through the first 8 games in the 2010 season (9 RPG). The run total for this season so far is 55 or 6.9 RPG which is far below the 2010 total of 10.5 RPG. I have personally seen about 6-8 balls hit (by the Panthers) to the outfield and caught for outs that would have been a home run last year. Just for the Panthers to keep up with last year's production they will have to score 17.9 RPG over the next 8 games and I don't see this happening, especially considering the next 3 opponents are Georgia Tech, Iowa and Mississippi State. The point is, run production for the Panthers is down thus far however they are 3rd in the CAA for runs scored behind George Mason (72) and James Madison (132). Yes, you read that correctly. Allow me to expand on JMU for a minute.

Can someone check the bats the JMU baseball team is carrying around??? Here's some numbers for you. 132 runs scored (2nd best is GM at 72), batting .431 as a team (2nd best is GM at .327), 29 home runs (2nd best is GSU at 8) and slugging .869 (2nd best is GM at .472). Those are crazy numbers my friends. In addition they've stolen 29 of 31 bases and you're next best in that category would be GSU at 20 of 23. You may say to yourself, "well they probably strike out alot with those numbers." Nope, they're currently sitting on the lowest K/AB ratio in the CAA. Now that I may have frightened you about JMU's offensive production let's move on.

Back to the GSU offense for a quick look at individual performances. Brett Maxwell, Joey Wood and Bryan Condotta are the only three Panthers batting over .300. Maxwell leads the team at .444. There are 13 CAA batters with higher averages, 8 on the JMU squad. Joey Wood (leads in slugging on the Panthers), Rob Lind and Ryan Fleming both have 2 home runs each. Mark Micowski is repeating his early 2010 performance with a somewhat slow start. He's hitting .281 but does have (team leading) 7 RBIs.

It's undisputable that the early season MVP goes to the GSU pitching staff. After being a middle of the road crew last season, the Panthers are sporting the league's lowest team ERA at 2.34 (starters at 1.99). The next best is Old Dominion at 3.04 and VCU at 3.38. The Panthers also lead in shutouts with 3 (2nd best is UNCW with 1) and opposing hitters are batting only .214 against them which is also best in the CAA. A stat I like looking at is walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP). The Panthers lead here with a ratio of just over 1.0. Here's where I can give you some comfort if you're still scared about JMU. Their team WHIP is near 2.0 and team ERA is 7.94. The Panthers have proven to be a far superior pitching team thus far and typically pitching wins games. Good pitching will cool off hot hitting. James Madison has their record because of their offense. Our series against them will be an interesting one for sure.

This needs to stand out and be seen because these guys have worked their tails off for us so far. In the top 5 of CAA pitchers with an ERA of 0.00 who've gone the most innings you'll find 4 Panthers. Starters Justin Malone and Nick Squeglia as well as relievers Jake Dyer and Sam Agnew-Wieland. Jake (junior) and Sam (freshman) are both new additions to the pitching squad for the 2011 season. Good job guys.

The worst news for the season so far is the fielding effort. The Panthers find themselves dead in the middle for fielding percentage in the CAA. I'll be honest, I assumed we were bottom 3 so this is good news I guess. The defense has turned the most double plays at 10, some of which being highlight makers and ERA savers.

Well that's it for now. We'll look at the run production level in another couple weeks after we have more data. My early guess is that RPG will edge closer to 8/8.5 but I don't see it reaching last year's NCAA leading number of 10.5.

On to Tech!