ATLANTA -- Senior Brandon Hill homered and freshman left-hander Cameron Jones closed his second straight victory as Georgia State improved to 2-0 with a 7-5 victory over St. John's in the Atlanta Challenge at the GSU Baseball Complex.

Hill's two-run homer, his first, gave the Panthers (2-0) a 7-2 lead after three innings. After St. John's inched closed with two runs in the fourth and one in the sixth, Jones came on with on one and no outs in the eight and recorded the final six outs for his first save, allowing just one hit with one walk and one strikeout  The rookie from Houston County High School, the younger brother of former GSU shortstop Justin Jones, earned the victory in Friday's walk-off win as he finished the game with 1.2 hitless, scoreless innings.

St. John's (0-2) jumped in front with two runs in the top of the first, but the Panthers answered immediately with two runs in the bottom half. Friday's hero Daino Deas delivered again with an opposite-field double to score Griffin Cheney, and then Josh Smith's sacrifice fly plated Elian Merejo to tie the game at 2-2.

The Panthers moved ahead with five runs over the next two innings. In the second, GSU needed just two hits to score three runs. Ryan Glass led off with a walk, and Will Mize legged out a bunt single. Then Hill also bunted and was safe at first on a throwing error to load the bases with no outs. Cheney drew a one-out walk to give Georgia State its first lead, and then Elian Merejo, who had had four hits and three RBI Friday, stroked an RBI-single to left for a 4-2 advantage. A sacrifice bunt by Deas made it 5-2, and one inning later, Hill's two-run blast put GSU up 7-2.

Before Jones came on in the eighth, another freshman and his high school teammate, righty Chandler Dawson (1-0) pitched two innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory, his first.

Merejo, the senior DH, had two hits today and is now 6-for-9 with four RBI in the first two games. Deas followed Friday's walk-off single with two RBI today, and freshman shortstop Will Mize added two hits.

The Atlanta Challenge concludes Sunday as Georgia State hosts Saint Peter's at 1 p.m. at the GSU Baseball Complex.