What You Need to Know:
* After clinching the series Saturday, GSU dropped the finale to UALR, 4-2
* The Panthers remain in first place in the Sun Belt at 8-3.
* Ryan Blanton hit his fifth homer for the Panthers.
ATLANTA -- After clinching its series with UALR with wins Friday and Saturday, Georgia State dropped the final game 4-2 Sunday at the GSU Baseball Complex. Ryan Blanton hit his fifth homer of the season for the Panthers.
Georgia State had its five-game Sun Belt Conference winning streak snapped, but the Panthers (19-14 overall) remain in first place in the conference with an 8-3 mark.
After scoring 25 runs in the first two games of the series, GSU was stymied Sunday by UALR (11-16, 8-6 Sun Belt) starter Sam Thoele (2-3). The right-hander scattered two runs on eight hits over eight innings.
"What happened today is that we faced a really good guy, and he pitched his game today," head coach Greg Frady said. "As much as didn't happen from our offense did happen from their pitcher. You have to give him credit.
"We got outpitched and couldn't put up enough offense to combat that. We just hit too many fly balls today against a guy who was throwing hard and the wind blowing in."
GSU starter Cole Uvila (0-4) struggled with command, allowing four runs on five hits with five walks in four-plus innings. Relievers Connor Stanley, Wayne Wages and Logan Barnette shut down the Trojans over the final five innings, but the Panthers only managed the two runs they scored in the third inning.
Blanton, the sophomore center fielder and leadoff hitter, led off the third with a solo shot to right field, his fifth homer of the season, to tie the game at 1-1. Singles by Justin Jones and Matt Rose put runners at first and third with two outs, and Sam Few delivered a run-scoring single to center to give GSU its only lead of the day at 2-1.
Rose had three hits on the day, and Few had two.
But UALR tied the game in the fourth on an RBI-groundout and then took the lead on Ryan Scott's two-run homer in the fifth.
The Panthers made several excellent defensive plays to keep the score close, including diving catches by left fielder Will Johnson and Justin Jones. Catcher Joey Roach picked a runner of first base, the Panthers' fourth pickoff of the series, including two by Roach.
"The play by Justin Jones, in my opinion, saved two runs for us," Frady said. "But in the early part of the game, it felt like we were constantly fighting and fighting to keep from giving up runs."
"All in all, it just didn't go our way today, but we won the series, which is always our goal," Frady added. "Of course we wanted to sweep today and it is disappointing to lose, but the weekend is over and we'll move forward as the first-place team in the conference."
The Panthers travel to Auburn for a midweek game on Wednesday and then return home to host UL Monroe next weekend at the GSU Baseball Complex.
