Georgia State prowls down to the bayou this weekend for a matchup with Louisiana-Monroe as the second half of the baseball season gets underway. The Panthers sit at the bottom of the Sun Belt with a 2-7 conference record and riding a five-game losing streak heading into the weekend. ULM has been one of the more surprising teams in the conference, sitting tied up with Texas State at 6-3 for second place in the conference.
Willis Maginnis has been a sparkplug for Georgia State, riding into this contest on a ten-game hitting streak and leading the team in home runs with five. The sophomore infielder is batting .386 over his last five games, picking up five runs and two RBIs with one home run over that span.
Sophomore John Beverley continues to lead the Panthers in batting average as he has for most of the season, batting .354 and smacking his first career home run in the midweek against #5-ranked Georgia. Beverley has been slumping over the last few games by only batting .187, but has driven home six RBIs and has accounted for two runs.
The Georgia State pitching staff hasn’t been consistent at all halfway through the season, sitting near the bottom of Division I baseball in team ERA at 6.52, and fifteen of the sixteen pitchers they’ve used this season have an ERA of 5+.
A major bright spot on the staff has been sophomore left-hander Jake Hembree, who holds an ERA of 2.73 over 33 innings pitched. Hembree’s best start of the year came last weekend against Texas State, where he threw a season-high six innings while only allowing one hit and striking out seven Bobcat batters. He will try to follow it up this weekend, projected to start game two of the series.
ULM has been making waves in the Sun Belt, trying to break the tie with Texas State for a second-place spot and potentially start generating some national attention. The Warhawks took the series last weekend against Louisiana in 2-1 fashion and blew out future Sun Belt foe Louisiana Tech during the midweek.
Kade Dupont headlines the offensive production for ULM, batting .393 on the season and putting him at 60th in all of D1 Baseball for batting average. Dupont is riding into this series on a seven-game hitting streak, picking up three RBIs and one double over that frame.
The ULM pitching staff is in a slightly better situation than the Panthers, holding onto a 6.18 team ERA, but has three pitchers throwing below a 5+ ERA. Leading the way is freshman Adam Brodnax, the right-hander has pitched 32 innings so far this season and boasts a 3.94 ERA with 32 strikeouts. Brodnax is projected to get the start in game one of the series.
Georgia State trails the all-time series 13-17, but has won the last two games against ULM when the series was in Atlanta last year.
Georgia State at Louisiana-Monroe
First Pitch: Thursday, April. 2nd at 7:300 p.m. EST
TV: ESPN+
Click here for information on tickets. Georgia State fans can also contact the ticket office at (404)-413-4020 or email the ticket office at tickets@gsu.edu
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