Audio
Head Coach Greg Frady
Seniors Bradley Logan and Carl Moniz
ATLANTA - Sometimes Hollywood endings seem too good to be true. Thankfully for the Georgia State baseball team, Sunday's regular season final game ending came true. Trailing 6-5 with a runner on in the bottom of the ninth, senior Bradley Logan, who will go down as arguably the greatest player in the history of the program, belted a two-run, walk-off home run to give the Panthers a 7-6 win.
Logan, who has set ten career records during his illustrious career, sent the ballpark into pandemonium, hugging head coach Greg Frady as he rounded third. Logan was the first player that Frady signed when he came to Georgia State and fittingly, on senior day, Logan got to provide the Panther faithful with one last celebration before the team heads to Wilmington for the CAA Championship to defend their title later this week.
Adding to the Hollywood ending was the fact that the runner on base was fellow senior Carl Moniz, who singled up the middle to lead off the inning. The two were among the three seniors, joining starting pitcher Ryan Moore, who were honored with festivities before the game.
"I was so excited and so proud," commented head coach Greg Frady. "It was a story book ending. I just had every positive thought that Carl Moniz was going to get on base and that Bradley Logan was going to deliver. It was such a sweet day for all of our seniors. For those seniors to make that kind of contribution on senior day when winning meant everything to us is just fantastic."
Before the game, Georgia State had already locked up the No. 2 seed in next week's CAA Championship. It will be the second season in a row that State is the number two seed. The Panthers will play No. 3-seed VCU on Thursday at 3 p.m., looking to defend last year's championship, the first in school history.
The Panthers closed out the regular season with the second most wins in school history and stand 34-21-1 and 17-6-1 in CAA action. The 17 conference wins are the most in a single season in the history of the program.
With the loss, William & Mary fell to 27-24 overall, 10-14 in conference.
Georgia State finished the season 23-6 at home, including an 11-1 mark in conference games. The 23 wins tied for the most in a single season, while the .793 winning percentage also set a new school record.
Just as he helped end the game, Moniz got things started for the Panthers in the bottom of the first, tripling to the right field wall, scoring redshirt-sophomore Brett Maxwell to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
Moore started the game and pitched 4.0 innings, not factoring into the decision. Moore was set to only throw four innings in preparation for the conference championship later this week. He allowed seven hits and three runs, striking out two.
The Tribe scored three in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead, before State got one back in the bottom of the inning. Junior Bryan Condotta doubled down the left field line, scoring sophomore Brandon Williams to cut the deficit to one.
The Tribe scored two more in the fifth and added another in the sixth, extending the lead to 6-2 before the Panthers started their rally.
Williams led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run, his tenth of the year, to cut the Tribe's lead to 6-3.
The Panthers rally continued in the seventh as junior Rob Lind singled through the right side, scoring junior Ryan Fleming who had reached on a walk. A batter later, Frady called for a double-steal that worked to perfection, scoring Williams from third to cut the deficit to one.
That provided for the walk-off heroics, the Panthers fifth walk-off win of the season and second of the weekend.
Sophomore Nick Squeglia (3-2) earned the win after 3.0 innings of no-hit relief. Squeglia struck out four and walked just one to earn the win.
Jay McCarthy (2-4) took the loss, pitching 1.1 innings of relief, allowing five hits and three runs.
Moniz finished his last home game 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI. Williams, who went 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs scored, is now tied with teammate Mark Micowski with 89 hits on the season, the most in the history of the program.
Tribe started Brett Koehler went 5.2 innings, allowing six hits and three runs, but did not factor into the decision.
Stephen Arcure led William & Mary at the plate, going 4-for-5 with a run scored.
The Panthers will return to the field on Thursday at 3 p.m. for the first game of the CAA Championship. All Panther games of the double-elimination tournament can be heard live on WRAS-FM 88.5 beginning with the Panther Pregame Show 30 minutes prior to first pitch.
Continue to check back with GeorgiaStateSports.com all week as CAA Tournament Central will give you a behind the scenes look as the Panthers look to defend their title.
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