GEORGIA STATE (24-29, 12-15) vs. OLD DOMINION (27-23, 13-14)
May 16-18 | GSU Baseball Complex

THE SERIES (All Games on ESPN+)
Thursday, 6 p.m.
Friday, 12 p.m. (*Note Updated Schedule)
Saturday, 1 p.m. 

LEADING OFF
> With both teams vying for one of the 10 spots in next week's Sun Belt Conference Championship, Georgia State hosts Old Dominion in the final regular-season series of 2024, Thursday through Saturday at the GSU Baseball Complex.

> Georgia State leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 14 in Division I with 100 home runs, the second-most in school history. Last year's squad hit a GSU record 110 homers.

> Third baseman Will Mize is the Panthers' top hitter on the season at .350 with 16 homers and 58 RBI. He leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 11 in Division I with 82 hits. He also ranks fourth in the Sun Belt in homers, sixth in RBI, third in doubles and 10th in runs scored.

> Mize had a 21-game hitting streak snapped Tuesday vs. USC Upstate, just one game shy of the school record of 22 games by Bradley Logan in 2008. During the streak, Mize hit .417 and slugged .813 with eight homers, 12 doubles, a triple and 28 RBI.

> Center fielder Matt Ruiz has seven homers and 19 RBI in the last nine games, including back-to-back two-homer games against Marshall and Coastal Carolina.

> Right fielder JoJo Jackson has homered in each of the last four games, including Sunday's game-winning homer in the top of the ninth inning at Coastal Carolina. The GSU record is five straight games with a homer, by Bradley Logan (2009) and Chad Smith (2000). 

> The Panthers hit 13 home runs, including three each by Will Mize and JoJo Jackson, last weekend at Coastal Carolina, a school record for homers in a three-game Sun Belt Conference series. GSU added four more at USC Upstate for 17 homers in the last four games.

> Will Mize leads the team with 16 homers, while JoJo Jackson has 14, Michael Maginnis and Ryan Dyal have 11, Brennan Hudson and Matt Ruiz 10, Luke Boynton nine and Jesse Donohoe seven.

> The Panthers have hit 285 homers since the start of the 2022 season (1.7 per game) 

GSU'S TOP SEASON HOME RUN TOTALS
110    2023 (59 games)    No. 14 in D1
100    2024 (53 games)    No. 14 in D1
82    2010 (58 games)
77    2000 (59 games)
75    2022 (57 games)
74    2009 (61 games)

> Three current Panthers rank in the top 15 in school history in career homers. Luke Boynton has moved up to No. 6 with 37 career homers. Will Mize is eighth with 33, and JoJo Jackson stands 12th with 29. Matt Ruiz is lurking just outside the top 25 with 20 homers at GSU. 

> Georgia State is No. 12 in the nation (No. 2 in Sun Belt) with 48 double plays turned.

> Brennan Hudson was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week on April 15. The sophomore catcher-first baseman hit .571 with an eye-popping 1.914 OPS, including a walk-off homer. He was 8-for-14 on the week with three homers, six RBI and nine runs scored. He also drew five walks for a .700 on-base percentage in the four games.

> Hudson, hitting .322 with 10 homers, is fourth in the Sun Belt with a .488 on-base percentage, including 34 walks, and fourth in with an OPS of 1.009.

> Under fifth-year head coach Brad Stromdahl, Georgia State recorded back-to-back 30-win seasons in 2022 and 2023, a first for the program since four in a row from 2008-2011, when Stromdahl was a GSU assistant coach. The Panthers were 30-29 in 2023, including a 16-14 mark in the Sun Belt.

> Stromdahl took over the Georgia State program in 2020 after seven seasons as the head coach at Georgia Gwinnett, where he started the program from scratch in 2013 and compiled a record of 328-104. He led the Grizzlies to the Avista-NAIA World Series three times, including his last two years (2018-19). In his 12th season as a head coach, Stromdahl is 439-233.

THE ELDER STATESMAN 
> The veteran of the GSU squad as a fifth-year senior, third baseman Will Mize is the 13th player in GSU history to record at least 200 career hits, 100 RBI and 100 runs scored. 

> Mize has a .314 career batting average and is climbing Georgia State's career lists in numerous offensive categories:

Hits: 251 (4th)
HR: 33 (8th)
2B: 51 (6th)
RBI: 162 (5th)
Runs: 138 (T-6th)
Total Bases: 405 (3rd)
At-Bats: 799 (5th)
Games: 216 (4th)
Games Started: 195

> He is also approaching several season records. With 150 total bases, he is only eight behind the record of 158 set by Max Ryerson in 2022. Mize stands seventh with 82 hits and tied for sixth with 16 homers.

SERIES NOTES
> Georgia State has won seven of the last eight games against Old Dominion, including a series win last season in Norfolk. 

> The Panthers took the first two games, 5-4 (10) and 4-0 before falling 7-6 in the regular season finale. In the extra-inning victory in Game 1, Will Mize drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th.

> Georgia State leads the series 16-14. The teams met annually from 2006 through 2013 when both were members of the Colonial Athletic Association.

> ODU's last trip to Atlanta was in 2013, when the Panthers swept the series, 13-8, 12-10 and 7-4. In the middle game, GSU trailed 10-1 in the sixth inning but rallied to win 12-10 on Chase Raffield's walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth.