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.

A Look at GSU Baseball in the NCAA Rankings

Photo Courtesy of the NCAA

I was looking over the NCAA statistics this morning and kept running across "Georgia St." at or near the top of many offensive catagories so I wanted to toot the horn of the team, the guys below and the coaching staff. The following is where the team ranks in all of NCAA...

Runs Scored: 4th
Runs Per Game: 9th
Walks: 3rd
Team Batting Average: 13th
Team Slugging %: 7th
Doubles: Tied for 1st (with Georgia Tech)
Hits: 7th
Home Runs: Tied for 9th
Stolen Bases: 12th

Now for some individual rankings...

Rob Lind: 4th in Walks
Brett Maxwell: Tied for 30th in Doubles
Mark Micowski: Tied for 16th in Hits
Ryan Fleming: Tied for 6th in Home Runs

It is also worth mentioning Will Campbell is tied for 11th in wins.

It's a great thing to be able to tell people "Georgia State baseball is one of the best offenses in the country", when you're trying to get them out to a game. Oh yeah, we have some pretty darn good pitching to boot. Come out and see this high power offense in a very important 3-game series with Old Dominion this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Game times are at 6 PM on Friday and 1 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

GSU Baseball Goes Round 2 with Alabama State

Photo Courtesy of MEACSWACSports.com

GSU is coming off a huge series win at James Madison and looks to continue momentum as they host always bat-friendly Alabama State today. This is the 2nd matchup of the two teams at Panthersville this season. The first meeting was back on March 15th when the Panthers clubbed the Hornets 14-4 in a staff pitching game. The Panthers enter today's game with a 25-9 record, being the fastest team to hit 25 wins on the season in school history. The Hornets enter at 11-16.

The Hornets bring a struggling and weak offense with a .264 team average but are scoring 6 runs per game in a hitting friendly league. However, only 1 starter with over 20 starts is hitting over .300 and a couple are flirting with .200. They have hit only 8 home runs and are slugging just .353 as a team. Jordan Mims has been the offensive crutch hitting .326 in 27 games with 12 RBI's, 2 doubles and a triple. The Hornets like to use their speed on the bases as they have 75 steals on the season in 89 attempts which is 3rd best in the NCAA. (Prior opponent James Madison is leading and GSU is tied for 12th.)

The starting pitcher is not yet known but the team ERA is 5.52 and they're allowing almost 7 runs per game this season. The Hornets have used 8 different starting pitchers this season with only 2 receiving at least 6 starts. The majority of their most frequently used pitchers are pitching around either 4.00 ERA or 6.00 ERA. No matter who is on the mound, the Panthers bats should have no problem connecting well with the ball.

The Panthers enter today's game with a .319 team batting average and slugging .489 as a team with 5 offensive regulars hitting above that mark. They've pulled their runs scored per game average up over 8. Look for Brett Maxwell to have a big game against this out-of-conference opponent as he's done all season hitting .483 outside the CAA. Ryan Fleming has been on a home run tear with 5 bombs in the last 6 games. I'd expect Ryan to send another ball over the left-center fence this evening. The Panthers should put up big runs for the 2nd time this year on the Hornets.

Freshman Sam Agnew-Wieland gets his 2nd start of the season today. He earned a win last week against a strong Mercer offense while pitching 5 innings and allowing just 3 runs off 5 hits and a walk. Sam has made 9 relief appearances, 2nd most on the team. Opposing batters are hitting only .243 off Sam and his WHIP is a 1.36. Certainly outstanding numbers for a true freshman, Panther fans (including myself) are ecstatic to have Sam on the team.

The Panthers pitching staff is coming off a great series where they held the NCAA's highest scoring offense to 18 runs in 3 games, nearly half their runs per game average. In fact, of the top 15 highest scoring offenses in the country, GSU has faced 3 of them going 5-1 in the 6 games and have held them all to around half their runs per game average. Those three teams are Mercer, Georgia Tech and James Madison.

Today's game should be two things for GSU. First it will be a game for the offense to keep their hitting eyes tuned up before a very good pitching team in ODU comes to Panthersville for a very important 3-game CAA series. Second, this should be a staff pitching game meaning it's an intentional "tune-up" outing for many guys. Sam will probably go 3 or 4 innings and then give way to another 3-5 pitchers to get work in. 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!!!

GSU Baseball Welcomes Alabama State on Tuesday

The Georgia State Panthers baseball team will face off against the Alabama State Hornets today at 5 PM, weather permitting. Let's hope the weather does cooperate today as last year's 2 games vs Alabama State resulted in a 27-3 and 23-1 offensive attack on the Hornets. What a nice way to get everyone's confidence up on seeing the ball well at the plate. The Panthers enter today's game with a 13-4 record sitting atop the CAA. The Hornets are 5-5 (I incorrectly stated 4-5-1 previously) and will be rusty as they haven't played since Sunday, March 6th. I hope this game is the needed catalyst to get much of the team bats on a hot streak.

Who: The Alabama State Hornets compete in NCAA D1 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). This is the 2nd SWAC team GSU will have faced this season. The Panthers swept Texas Southern in a 3-game home series to open the 2011 season. The Hornets finished the 2010 season with a 13-28 record. This is a veteran team coming in as they only lost 1 letterwinner and no starters from 2010. Coach Frady has not lost to a SWAC opponent as Head Coach of GSU. GSU does share a 2011 common opponent with ASU in Mercer University. ASU lost 0-8, 1-9 and 2-18 at Mercer in the end of February. The Panthers beat Mercer 14-5 right before the ASU-Mercer series.

ASU at the Plate: ASU is batting .240 as a team and is scoring 6.2 runs per game however they have scored under 4 runs in 5 games and over 7 in only 3. Starting left fielder (Jr.) Jordan Mims leads the starters on offense with a .333 batting average and 5 RBI's. Senior Catcher Jourdan Mott is the batting .313 and leads the team with 10 RBI's and 2 home runs. The Hornets have only 11 doubles, no triples and 3 home runs as a team. Mims and Mott are the only 2 regular starters batting over .300. They steal bases with success when they do decide to run as they've only been caught stealing in 1 of 23 attempts.

ASU on the Mound: The Hornets have a staff ERA of 6.15 through 10 games. They have given up 7 runs per game in 2010. They have a couple starters who've performed well, one average and a couple who have been rocked on the mound. The starter for today's game is still un-announced by ASU. Outside of senior righty Devin Dominquez, the Hornet relief staff has not been good this season.

GSU at the Plate: Rob Lind and Ryan Fleming will look to continue their hot streak at the plate after bringing their averages up to .245 and .283 respectively. Fleming had 2 game-winning hits against Towson and had a 3-run home run in Sunday's finale. Rob racked up a .867 on-base percentage in the series. Outfielder Brett Maxwell still leads the team with a .442 batting average while Mark Micowski and Ryan Fleming are leading the team with 12 RBI's each.

GSU on the Mound: Right hand redshirt sophomore Brandon Bast will get his first start for GSU. Brandon is a Panther newcomer this season as he transferred from Georgia Perimeter College where he put in relief work in the 2010 season. He went 1-2 with 17 strikeouts in 16 innings of relief. Brandon has worked 3 innings this season and has allowed 2 runs on 5 hits. He has given 3 walks and has 2 strikeouts in his appearances. The Panthers offense should provide a large lead for this to be a staff game on the mound. I would guess Brandon pitches 4 or 5 innings before giving way to some relievers for work to stay fresh.

This should be an easy game for the Panthers and could be the first game of the season to top 20 runs. The current high for runs scored is 14 when the Panthers beat Mercer 14-5 in Macon. Good luck to Brandon in his first start tonight!

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.

Diamond Panthers Play Long Ball to Down Mercer

The trend of the away team taking the victory continued today as the Panthers win at Mercer, 14-5. This game featured another great pitching effort by the Panthers and the offensive breakout we hoped for.

Starting pitcher Aidan Francis gave up 4 earned runs off 3 home runs. Because of the power in the Mercer lineup, keeping people off base was a key to this game. Francis fanned 8 and walked only 2 batters in his 4.2 innings. Charley Olsen saw his first action of the season as he came in relief. Olsen went 4 innings giving up 1 run (unearned) and striking out 7 while only walking 1. Josh Chesler came in to get a pop fly to right field for the final out of the game. In total, the pitchers gave up 4 earned runs, striking out 15 and walking only 3.

Have a day Rob Lind! Rob went 2 for 6, both hits for home runs in the 6th and 7th inning, picking up 5 RBIs. Ryan Fleming and Carter Sackett also went deep collecting 3 RBIs each. It's good to see the power come around. The Panthers batted .400 with runners in scoring position.

The one area of the game that went wrong today was with fielding. The Panthers recorded 5 errors on defense, luckily this didn't hand the game over to Mercer. I have a feeling there's going to be some major fielding drills going on in the next few practices.

The Panthers are now 4-0 on the season. Western Illinois comes into town Friday for a 3 game series. Game times are at 4 PM, 1 PM and 12 PM. Western Illinois plays in NCAA D1 The Summit (league) and will come in 0-3 after being swept at Samford to open the season.