ATLANTA –
Elian Merejo homered and
Will Mize drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning to back strong pitching by
Cameron Jones and
Dawson Sweatt and lead Georgia State to a series-clinching, 3-2 victory over Georgia Southern Saturday at the GSU Baseball Complex.
Georgia State (7-22, 3-3 Sun Belt) dropped the series opener Thursday but came back to even the series Friday with a 7-6, 10-inning walk-off Friday, setting up Saturday's deciding game.
Sweatt (2-1), the sophomore left-hander from Fayetteville, Ga. (Starr's Mill High School), won both games out of the bullpen. Today, he finished the game with 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. After Georgia Southern (13-13, 4-5) put the tying run on base with one out in the ninth, he ended it with a flyout and a strikeout.
Starting on his 20th birthday, Jones gave the Panthers a strong start. The second-year freshman left-hander allowed just one run and two hits in 5.1 innings while striking out a career-high seven.
"We're just starting to click. The schedule that we had early prepared us for these games," head coach
Brad Stromdahl said. "We got beat Thursday, but we came back with really good team wins the last two days. I just feel like it's starting to come together. But we can't look too far ahead.
"Today was a good battle," Stromdahl continued. "They had the tying run on in the ninth inning, but we got really good pitching performances.
Dawson Sweatt did a great job at the end, and Cam Jones giving us the innings that he did was huge."
The Panthers trailed 1-0 when Merejo, the senior designated hitter, belted his team-leading fifth homer of the season with a solo shot to left field in the fifth inning to tie it up.
But Georgia Southern regained the lead immediately with a run in the sixth. The Eagles were threatening for more when Sweatt came on with runners and second and third and two outs and induced an inning-ending groundout.
Georgia State freshman third baseman
Preston Joye led off the seventh with single to right field. With one out,
Griffin Cheney singled to left and moved to second when Joye went first-to-third on the play, just sliding in safely.
After the Eagles turned to closer
Nick Jones to relieve starter Jordan Jackson (1-4), Merejo drove in his second run of the day with an RBI-groundout. Then Mize dropped a double just inside the chalk in right field to score Cheney with the go-ahead run.
Catcher
Blaine Marchman, Friday's hero with his walk-off single, stayed hot with two more hits today.
Ashby Smith also contributed two hits for the Panthers.
Georgia State's next game is Tuesday at Mercer at 6 p.m., while the Panthers' next Sun Belt series is next weekend at Appalachian State.
