Lucas Grantham crushed a grand slam in the first inning to help lead Georgia State to a 14-1 victory over Bellarmine at the GSU Baseball Complex on Friday night.
A senior transfer from Wofford, Grantham came to bat with one out and the bases loaded in the first and promptly crushed a 1-0 pitch he saw from Karl Ralamb (0-2) that traveled 402 feet and 100 mph over the wall in left center to give Georgia State (4-2) a 4-0 lead they would not relinquish. The Smyrna, Ga. native went 2-for-4 with five RBI's on the day.
Nick Garagozzo went 2-for-3 with three RBI's,
Austin Sellers went 2-for-5, and
Adam Haber drove in three runs on a base-clearing triple in the seventh.
Tysen Benford (1-0) pitched six innings and allowed just one run on three hits to earn his first victory of the season.Â
Brantley Upshaw made his season debut with one scoreless inning out of the bullpen, and
Cooper Lewis finished the game with two scoreless, hitless innings and allowed just one walk with a team-high four strikeouts.
After Grantham's grand slam in the first, Georgia State added one run on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by
Hunter Carlson to make it 5-0 in the second.
Bellarmine (2-3) scratched across their lone run in the third before GSU pulled away with three runs each in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings.
Game Two between Georgia State and Bellarmine will be played at Gwinnett Field on Saturday, February 21, in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Â First pitch is at 7:30 p.m.
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