#10 GEORGIA STATE (25-31, 13-17) vs. #7 COASTAL CAROLINA (33-21, 16-14)
Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Championship 
Tuesday, May 21 | 4 p.m. ET | Riverwalk Stadium, Montgomery, Ala.  

LEADING OFF
> After earning a spot in the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Championship Presented by Troy University for the fourth straight year, No. 10 seed Georgia State begins play Tuesday in the single-elimination round, facing No. 7 seed Coastal Carolina Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Ala.

> Georgia State leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 16 in Division I with 104 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 17 homers and 60 RBI. He leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 13 in Division I with 86 hits, including 36 extra base hits. He also ranks third in the Sun Belt in homers, sixth in RBI, sixth in doubles and ninth in slugging.

> Mize hit safely in 24 of the last 25 games, including a 21-game streak that was just one game shy of the school record of 22 games by Bradley Logan in 2008. Over the last 25 games, he hit .389 with nine homers, 12 doubles, 30 RBI and 30 runs scored.

> Center fielder Matt Ruiz has seven homers and 21 RBI over the last 12 games, including back-to-back two-homer games against Marshall and Coastal Carolina.

> Right fielder JoJo Jackson is second on the team with 14 homers, 44 RBI and 49 runs scored and third with a .310 average. Over the last 23 games, he hit .352 with 11 HR and 32 RBI. He homered in all three games at Coastal Carolina, including the game-winning blast in the ninth inning of Game 2.

> Will Mize leads the team with 17 homers, while JoJo Jackson has 14, Brennan Hudson has 12, Michael Maginnis and Ryan Dyal have 11, and Matt Ruiz has 10.

> The Panthers have hit 289 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
104    2024 (56 games)    No. 16 in D1
82    2010 (58 games)
77    2000 (59 games)
75    2022 (57 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 tied for seventh with 34, 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. 11 in the nation (No. 2 in Sun Belt) with 51 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 is GSU's second-leading hitter at .326 with 12 homers and 32 RBI. He is fifth in the Sun Belt in OPS (1.109), sixth in on-base percentage (.480) and ninth in slugging (.629). In conference games he compiled a 1.229 OPS.

> Georgia State scored 46 runs, a program record for a Sun Belt Conference series, with 12 homers to take two of three games from Southern Miss. Brennan Hudson (8-11, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 2.345 OPS) and outfielder Michael Maginnis (7-14, 3 HR, 8 RBI) combined for six home runs and 14 RBI in the three games. Maximus Martin (7-for-13, six runs scored) and Ryan Dyal (5-for-11, two homers, seven RBI) also had big series.

> 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 440-235.

> Former Major League pitcher Chad Bell is in his second season as the Panthers' pitching coach. Bell played 10 seasons of pro ball, reaching the Majors with the Detroit Tigers in 2017-18. 

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: 255 (4th)
HR: 34 (T-7th)
2B: 51 (6th)
RBI: 164 (5th)
Runs: 139 (6th)
Total Bases: 412 (3rd)
At-Bats: 811 (3rd)
Games: 219 (4th)
Games Started: 198

> Mize is also approaching several season records. With 157 total bases, he is only one behind the record of 158 set by Max Ryerson in 2022. Mize stands fourth with 86 hits (Record: 91), sixth with 17 homers (Record: 22), and tied for ninth with 60 RBI (Record: 71).

SERIES NOTES
> Georgia State and Coastal Carolina combined for 73 runs and 22 home runs when they played on the second-to-last weekend at Conway. Coastal Carolina won the series, two games to one.

> The Panthers hit 13 homers, including three each by Will Mize and JoJo Jackson, in the series, a school record for homers in a three-game Sun Belt Conference series.

> Georgia State won Game 2 of the series 10-9. Mize homered in the eighth inning to give GSU a 9-8 lead, and after Coastal tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, Jackson hit the go-ahead homer in the ninth. 

> Georgia State and Coastal Carolina are meeting in the Sun Belt Championship for the second straight year. Last year, the No. 8 seed Panthers fell to top-seeded Coastal 5-4 on the first day of the double-elimination bracket play.

> Coastal leads the series 15-7.

GEORGIA STATE IN THE SUN BELT TOURNEY
> Georgia State is playing in the Sun Belt Conference Championship for the fourth straight year and the seventh time in 10 tournaments since the Panthers rejoined the Sun Belt in 2014.

> The Panthers are 8-11 in Sun Belt tournament games, including 3-8 in the current Sun Belt era.