ATLANTA – Jesse Donohoe and Cole Griffith each recorded two hits, and Colin Hynek homered as Georgia State defeated Belmont 9-3 on Opening Day at the GSU Baseball Complex on Friday evening.

Donohoe and Griffith each 2-for-4 with one RBI and one walk.  Hynek hit his homer with two on in the sixth inning as the redshirt-junior from Rockmart, Ga. hit a three-run blast that traveled 103 mph off the bat over the wall in left field for Georgia State's first home run of the season.

The win gave Georgia State (1-0) its' fourth straight win on Opening Day and 11^th in their last 13 seasons.  All nine GSU starters, which included five newcomers, including four transfers, reached base at least once, scattering nine runs on nine hits.  The Panthers also capitalized on Belmont's struggles finding the strike zone with 11 walks, led by three each from newcomers Carter Bailey and Nick Garagazzo.

Georgia State's pitching staff combined to hold Belmont (0-1) to just four hits with 12 strikeouts.  Ross Norman got the start for GSU and opened the game with three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with five strikeouts, but ran into trouble in the fourth when he walked four batters, including two with the bases loaded that drove in two runs with two outs.  Cole Roberts (1-0) then came on to pitch and promptly pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts to earn the win.  The junior right-hander from Las Vegas, Nevada also made a spectacular tumbling, catch that he bobbled but held onto in the fifth inning.

With two outs in the second and the score tied 0-0, Jae Williams capitalized on a defensive miscue by Belmont when he hit a pop up that dropped in front of the mound in the middle of a pack of Bruin fielders for a base hit.  Newcomer Kaleb Freemen then made the Bruins pay when he laced a double just inside the right field line to score Williams from first and give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

GSU then broke the game open in the next inning with four runs on four innings.  Cole Griffith led off the third with a single to right field and scored when Jesse Donohoe hit a triple that got past a diving center fielder to make it 2-0 before Carter Bailey hit a ground ball through the left side to make it 3-0.  The Panthers would then load the bases and score two runs on a hit-by-pitch by Freeman and a walk by Michael Maginnis.

Belmont scored two runs in the ninth to cut the Panther lead to 5-2 before Hynek delivered his three-run blast to in the sixth make it 8-2.  GSU would then add one more run in the seventh when Maginnis walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a single to right-center field by Griffith to make it 9-2.  The Bruins added one run on a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the ninth, but that was all they could manage.

Sam Schofield pitched the final two innings for GSU and allowed one run on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Game Two of this weekend's series between Georgia State and Belmont is on Saturday, February 15 at the GSU Baseball Complex.  First pitch is at 2 p.m.