Baseball Travels to Georgia State for Three-Game Series

Live Stats

Live Audio (Friday Only)

ATLANTA, Ga. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University baseball team plays its first games of the 2015 season in the Eastern Time Zone when the Eagles travel to Atlanta, Ga. for a three-game set against Georgia State University, March 6-8. The Green and White split a 10-game road trip through northern California against Saint Mary's, UC Davis, and Santa Clara last week, after being swept by the University of Arizona to begin the season.
                Game one of the series gets underway Friday, March 6, at 6 p.m. with game two on Saturday, March 7, slated to begin at 2 p.m. The series will conclude Sunday, March 8, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. at the GSU Baseball Complex.

THE SERIES: Eastern Michigan and Georgia State will meet on the diamond for the third time Friday, with the Eagles looking for their first win over the Panthers. The Eagles and Panthers last met in 2009 when GSU swept a doubleheader from EMU, Feb. 28, in Atlanta, Ga.
    The last time the Green and White squared off against a team from the Sun Belt Conference was in 2010 against Arkansas-Little Rock and South Alabama. EMU is 7-11 all-time against teams currently in the Sun Belt Conference.

FRIDAY'S START TIME MOVED TO 3 P.M.: The start time for the series opener between the Eagles and Panthers has been moved up three hours. Originally scheduled for 6 p.m., first pitch will now be 3 p.m. for the first game of the three-game set.

ON THE MOUND: Eastern Michigan will go with the same rotation once again this weekend in the Eagles three-game set at Georgia State. On Friday, Ryan Lavoie (1-2, 5.21 ERA) will square off against Nathan Bates (2-0, 3.00 ERA) in the series opener. Saturday will feature Charlie Land (0-2, 4.96 ERA) against Kenny Anderson (1-1, 4.96 ERA), while the series finale on Sunday will see Jake Andrews (1-1, 1.31 ERA) battle Cole Uvila (0-1, 5.11 ERA).

SCOUTING GEORGIA STATE: Georgia State enters this weekend's series with a record of 7-5, having won three out of its last four games. The Panthers swept Ohio University last weekend, Feb. 27-March 1, at the GSU Baseball Complex before dropping a 4-2 decision at Georgia in Athens Wednesday, March 4.
    The Panthers have a .261 team batting average and have blasted 12 home runs in the first 12 contests. Freshman shortstop Justin Jones has began his collegiate career with a bang, leading the team with 14 hits and batting .326 while recording five extra base hits. Preseason All-American Matt Rose leads the team in home runs (5), total bases (31), and slugging percentage (.705) while also making one appearance on the mound this year. GSU returned First Team All-Sun Belt Conference selection Joey Roach. The left-handed hitting catcher is hitting .295 with a pair of homers and 13 RBI.
    On the mound, the Panthers have compiled a team ERA of 4.79. Wayne Wages (1-0, 3.12 ERA) and Jerry Stuckey (0-0, 6.00 ERA) have made a team-high six appearances. GSU ace, Nathan Bates, has struck out a team-best 13 batters in 18 innings while making three starts. Kenny Anderson and Cole Uvila have also made three starts for the Panthers.

LEADING THE COUNTRY: Eastern Michigan's Mitchell McGeein and Georgia State's Matt Rose are tied for first among all NCAA Division I hitters with five home runs entering this weekend's action. Also tied with McGeein and Rose are juniors Harrison Bader of the University of Florida, Ryan Howell of the University of Nevada, and Taylor Ward of Fresno State. The Panthers as a team are tied for eighth in the country in home runs while the Green and White are tied with 12 other teams at 31st, having belted eight home runs. Texas A&M and Nevada lead the nation with 17 long balls.

DELAPLANE NAMED MAC WEST PITCHER OF THE WEEK: EMU's Sam Delaplane was named the MAC West Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday, March 2. The award was the first of his career, but the second consecutive week an EMU pitcher has received the honor as Jake Andrews was named pitcher of the week for the period ending Feb. 22. The last time EMU had back-to-back pitchers of the week was in 2012, when Ryan Lavoie, April 9, and Joe Battistelli, April 17, claimed the honors.
    Delaplane finished the week with a 2-0 record and a 1.29 ERA while striking out 11 in seven innings in his return to his home state. The San Jose, Calif. native pitched the final 2.1 innings allowing no runs on one hit in the Eagles 4-2 victory over UC Davis, Feb. 25. He threw the last four innings allowing one run on four hits while striking out a career-best seven in the 5-4 extra inning victory over Santa Clara in game one of the doubleheader, March 1.

BATTING IN WINS AND LOSSES: In the Eagles five victories this season, the Green and White have a team batting average of .321 and have scored 27 runs which is good for 5.4 runs per contest. EMU is batting below the Mendoza Line in the eight losses, however, batting at a .190 clip while only scoring 2.375 runs per game.

MIGHTY MITCH: Junior Mitchell McGeein is off to solid start to begin his junior campaign. McGeein enters the series against the Panthers riding an 11-game hitting streak. During that streak, he is batting .326 (14-for-43) with a pair of doubles, five home runs, 11 RBI, and has a slugging percentage of .620. The Calgary, Alberta native is batting .280 on the season, and has recorded three multi-hit games while starting in all 13 games at third base.

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE: Mitchell McGeein belted his nation leading fourth and fifth home runs of the season Sunday, March 1, in the nightcap of the series finale doubleheader against Santa Clara. It was the second time in McGeein's career that he has hit a pair of long balls in the same game, as he hit two homers against Northern Kentucky University last season in a 13-2 EMU victory, March 15. The junior has already tied his season-high mark for homers in a season with the Green and White.

EMU MISCUES: The EMU defense have been plagued by errors in the early portion of the season. The Green and White's defense has been error-free in only two out of the first 13 contests. Eastern has made a total 32 errors which ranks second to last in all of NCAA Division I baseball. EMU's fielding percentage of .936 is also near the bottom of the national ranks, coming in at 275th in the country. Third baseman Mitchell McGeein and second baseman John Rubino have a team-high six errors.

MOVING UP THE ALL-TIME RANKS: Senior John Rubino has been a staple in the Eagles lineup since he stepped foot on campus for his freshman season in 2012. The Scottsdale, Ariz. native has played in 160 career games, starting in 148 of them for the Green and White. Rubino currently ranks 14th in the EMU record book in steals (36) and 23rd in career at bats (583). The infielder needs just nine hits to crack into the top-25 in the career hits category and 17 runs to rank in the top-20 for career runs scored.

BIG MIKE: Redshirt-sophomore Michael Mioduszewski was 7-for-18 (.389) last week against UC Davis and Santa Clara, recording five RBI, four runs, a stolen base, and a triple.   Mioduszewski drove in the game-winning run in the eighth inning against UC Davis, Feb. 25. He drilled a 1-1 pitch through the box in the top of the eighth against the Aggies, Feb. 25, to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead. EMU went on to win the game 4-2, to salvage the split against UC Davis. Mioduszewski delivered a three-run pinch hit triple in the top of the ninth against Santa Clara, Feb. 28, but the Broncos were able to hold on 5-3. The Dexter, Mich. native has bumped his average up to .242 entering the series against Georgia State after starting the season just 1-for-15.

WEST COAST SWING: The Eastern Michigan baseball team opened its campaign on the western portion of the United States. In fact, the Eagles spent their first 13 games in either the Mountain of Pacific time zones, playing 10-of-13 games to open the season in the state of California. Eastern will not have to worry about playing in the cool Midwest winter until they travel to Indiana, March 10-11, for two games in Bloomington, Ind.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jake Andrews

Sam Delaplane

Charlie Land

Ryan Lavoie

Mitchell McGeein

Mike Mioduszewski

John Rubino

Eastern Michigan Athletics