Bradley Logan hit his third home run of the tournament, and Michael McCree, Carl Moniz and Marc Mimeault also homered for the Panthers (38-20), who will face host UNC Wilmington, a 5-3 winner over George Mason Friday night, on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the CAA Championship game. Georgia State stands just one win away from its first-ever conference title and NCAA bid, while UNCW would have to win twice in the double-elimination tournament.

Moore, a junior righthander from Kennesaw, Ga., needed just 96 pitches to shut down the CAA's top offensive team and improve to 7-1 on the season. The second-team all-CAA selection scattered three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and just one walk.

“Exciting, dramatic, pressure-filled, and heroic, those are the words I would use to describe this win,” said Georgia State head coach Greg Frady. “Ryan Moore was absolutely amazing. He was awesome.”

Georgia State fell behind early on a two-run, first-inning homer off the bat of Mason's Scott Krieger, the 20th of the season for the CAA Co-Player of the Year. But those were the only runs that Moore would allow until the eighth inning, retiring 10 straight at one point.

“We came into the game saying we didn't want to let Krieger beat us,” said Frady. “Ryan did make a mistake on that pitch in the first inning, but he certainly righted the ship after that.”

Logan, the junior from Augusta, Ga., answered for Georgia State with a two-run homer of his own in the third inning. Logan's opposite field blast was his third of the tournament and eighth of the season and 25th of his career, good for ninth on the Panthers' career list.

One inning later, the Panthers took their first lead as Nick Hogan singled with two outs to bring home Brandon Williams, who drew a leadoff walk, putting Georgia State up, 3-2.

McCree, a senior from Lawrenceville, Ga. extended the Panthers' lead to 5-2 in the sixth with a two-run homer to straight away center field. Carl Moniz, who legged out an infield single with two outs, came home on the blast, McCree's second of the season.

“This is what we've been playing for all year. We didn't come here just to play well, we came here to try to win it,” said McCree.

Georgia State tacked on another run in the seventh. Derek Simmons led off the inning with a single, then with two outs, he stole second and came around to score on a single by Matt Van Horn, giving the Panthers a 6-2 advantage.

Moniz extended the lead to 7-2 with a solo home run, his 10th of the season, in the seventh.

Mason picked up a run in the eighth. Ryan Uphouse beat out an infield hit to lead off the inning, and then Spencer Wiggins walked. That brought up Chris Henderson, Mason's leading hitter who belted a ball to the right field corner. But when Uphouse was held up at third, Henderson was caught between first and second and was tagged out.

Krieger popped a ball into foul territory down the right field line, and first baseman Theo Asher caught the ball with his back to the plate, allowing Uphouse to come home on the sacrifice fly. Moore induced a groundout from cleanup hitter Justin Bour to end the rally.

Mimeault, the senior catcher, gave the Panthers a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth with a two-run homer that bounced off the top off the wall in center field. It was his team-leading 14th round-tripper of the season.

Moore then retired the side in order in the ninth to finish the victory, his second complete game of the season.

“It's easy to pitch when your offense comes to play, and they definitely came to play today,” said Moore. “I basically just tried to keep them off balance by getting ahead with fastballs and then throwing changeups down and away, and it worked.

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