What You Need to Know:
• Georgia State won its Sun Belt series vs. Arkansas State with a 14-6 win Sunday.
• The win was No. 294 at Georgia State for head coach Greg Frady, making him the Panthers' career leader in victories.
• James Clements drove in a career-high five runs on three hits, and Jarrett Hood added three RBI on four hits.
ATLANTA -- Head coach Greg Frady became Georgia State's career leader in victories as his Panthers downed Arkansas State 14-6 Sunday to win the Sun Belt Conference series. James Clements drove in a career-high five runs on three hits, and Jarrett Hood added four hits and three RBI for the Panthers (11-9, 2-1 Sun Belt.)
Frady now has 294 victories in his 10th season at GSU as he surpassed his former boss, Mike Hurst, who won 293 games from 1993-2006.
"This is really about our first conference weekend playing Arkansas State, and the emphasis should be on our players, who absolutely played their butts off today. Our seniors really took charge," Frady said.
"I think Coach Hurst deserves a heck of a lot of credit for being the greatest coach to coach here and for all that he went through," he continued. "I'm very proud to say that he is a friend of mine and I was able to coach on his staff, but that's all completely secondary to what our players are doing right now. The focus should be on them, and they have handled the business in weekend number one in our conference and we're off to a great start."
The Panthers used a seven-run third inning to break open the game, turning a 3-3 tie into a 10-3 advantage, and Garrett Ford's outstanding relief effort kept the Red Wolves (10-9, 2-4 Sun Belt) at bay.
"The seven-run inning was really the decider," Frady said. "That changed the game entirely."
For the third straight game, the Panthers fell behind in the top of the first inning, this time allowing Arkansas State to take a 1-0 lead.
But Clements, who had the walk-off single in Saturday's 5-4, 10-inning victory, quickly tied the game with a run-scoring single to bring home Ryan Blanton, who led off with a triple.
After Joey Roach was hit by a pitch, Hood followed with an RBI-single to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. Brandon Gonzalez put GSU ahead 3-1 with a sacrifice fly.
But Arkansas State answered with two unearned runs in the second to tie the game at 3-3.
Hood led off the third by legging out a bloop double to right field, and he came around to score on an error. After Will Kilgore delivered a run-scoring single and Blanton drew a bases-loaded walk, Clements doubled over the left fielder's head to put the Panthers up 8-3. Then Hood made it 10-3 with a two-run single to right field.
After GSU starter Bryan White walked two in the fourth, Ford came on in relief. Arkansas State managed three runs that inning to pull within 10-6, but then Ford shut the door and earned the victory. He pitched five innings and allowed just one run on five hits with two strikeouts.
"We thought Garrett Ford would be a good matchup today, and he certainly was," Frady said.
Roach extended the Panthers' lead to 11-6 with an inside-the-park homer--his fourth of the season--in the fifth when left fielder Garrett Rucker collided with the wall.
GSU put the game out of reach with three runs in the sixth on a bunt single by Andy Burnett and a two-run single to right center by Clements.
"It was a great day to win the first conference series at home against Arkansas State, a good team and a good program," Frady said. "It's a good start for us. With our injuries, every game is going to be a monster right now, and we've got find a win to win every one of them. Today a lot went our way in the way we swung the bat and the way we pitched, so it was a good day."
Georgia State concludes its season-opening homestand by hosting Savannah State Tuesday at 5 p.m.
