ATLANTA -- Justin Jones hit the tying home run in the eighth inning, and his walk-off squeeze bunt in the 12th inning gave Georgia State a 6-5 victory over Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference series opener Friday at the GSU Baseball Complex.
Four Georgia State (21-20, 7-11 Sun Belt) pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts to tie the school record, and the Panthers rallied from an early 5-0 deficit on homers by Jones and Nick Gatewood.
Louisiana (24-20, 10-9 Sun Belt) jumped in front 5-0 with two runs in the first inning, two in the second and one more in the third off GSU starter Hunter Gaddis.
After the rough start, Gaddis settled down to pitch seven innings and retire 13 out of the last 14 batters he faced, allowing only one walk. His final line saw him give up five runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and three walks.
Trailing 5-0, GSU finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning. Luke Leonard and Romero Greer had back-to-back infield hits, and Kendall Ford singled to center to score Leonard from second base with the Panthers' first run. Ford followed his 5-for-5 performance Wednesday with a 2-for-5 outing tonight.
With two outs, Gatewood, the junior catcher, blasted a three-run homer to right center, his team-leading 12th of the season, to pull the Panthers within 5-4.
Louisiana starter Colten Schmidt also pitched seven innings and allowed four runs on six hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
Nick Lee relived Schmidt to start the eighth, and he was greeted by Jones' solo homer, his fifth of the season, to tie the game at 5-5.
Relievers Brandon Baker, Jansen Acton and Tyler Koch combined to shut down the Ragin' Cajuns over the next five innings with 10 strikeouts and just two hits. Baker struck out four in 1-2/3 innings, Acton fanned three in two innings and Koch also struck out three in 1-1/3 innings.
Leonard, the Panthers' center fielder, led off the bottom of the 12th by hitting a fly ball to right field that dropped just inside the line for a single. He moved up on a ball in the dirt, but Greer walked to put runners at first and second. Ford slapped a ground ball to shortstop, and the Ragin' Cajuns got the out at second but Ford just beat the throw at first.
That brought Jones to the plate with runners at first and third and one out. He laid down the suicide squeeze bunt down the third base line, and Leonard raced home with the winning run.
Jones, the Panthers' senior shortstop playing in his 200th career game, drove in the winning run in extra innings for the fifth time in his stellar career.
Tonight's win is victory No. 350 at Georgia State for head coach Greg Frady.
The series continues with a 2 p.m. game Saturday at the GSU Baseball Complex.
