Georgia Southern baseball program seeks to build momentum from milestone 2022 season

STATESBORO — For the Georgia Southern baseball team's graduating seniors, Rodney Hennon is transitioning from their head coach to a job reference.

"For most of them, their playing days are probably through," Hennon said Sunday. "These guys are coming into the work force right now. This group of seniors that are leaving here, call me. I'll be glad to be a reference for any of them because these guys are going to go out and do big things in the real world for wherever they work, for whatever organization they're a part of, whatever community that they live in.

"That's the thing I'm most proud of. These guys are winners."

The 2022 Eagles squad won 41 games — the program's most since 42 in 2009. Georgia Southern (41-20) desperately wanted to match that number with a victory Sunday, but No. 24 Texas Tech (39-21) had other ideas with a 3-1 win to eliminate host and 21st-ranked GS in the Statesboro Regional.

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Georgia Southern's first time hosting a regional was a milestone for the athletics program, along with making the NCAA baseball tournament for the 14th time overall and first since 2014.

"We're going to look back when we're older and say that was our year, first time hosting in Statesboro," said GS fifth-year first baseman Jason Swan.

The top-seeded Eagles won their opener in the double-elimination tournament Saturday morning, an 8-0 shutout of fourth seed UNC Greensboro.

On Saturday night, the Eagles were dealt a 6-4 defeat in the winners' bracket to second seed and No. 17 Notre Dame, which is higher ranked across national polls and could have felt snubbed by the NCAA in not hosting a regional in South Bend, Indiana.

The game was emotionally charged — the atmosphere heightened by the largest attendance (3,533) for a baseball game at J.I. Clements Stadium, breaking the mark of 3,435 set for a GS matchup against UGA in 2017.

Notre Dame scored on three home runs, and Georgia Southern's Noah Ledford crushed one of his own. A day later, Texas Tech and GS were reined in by a ballpark whose outfield walls felt farther away than normal. Nothing was getting out.

"Any ball hit in the air was going to be caught," GS right fielder Christian Avant said. "We hit some balls hard. (Parker Biederer) in the eighth, that ball's going (over the fence) at any other field, and any other day it's going at our place. It just wasn't carrying. ... The wind was blowing in. Thick air. All day we were hitting balls hard — just wasn't falling. That's the name of the game in baseball.

"You've got to hit when the opportunities are there and we didn't today," Avant continued. "We hit it hard but they caught it. They made good plays and played good defense. I tip my cap to them."

In praise of Statesboro, GS

Texas Tech head coach Tim Tadlock — whose squad lost 2-1 to regional champion Notre Dame (38-14) on Sunday night — praised Georgia Southern and the city of Statesboro and called J.I. Clements Stadium "a cool place to play."

He was a lot happier than the Eagles because the victorious Red Raiders had scored their three runs in one inning on two singles, a walk, a bases-loaded walk, a sacrifice fly and an RBI-single for a 3-1 score in the fourth.

"Hitting comes in spurts," said Tadlock, whose team totaled four hits for the game. "Really, I'm glad we got three in one inning."

The Eagles had seven hits and were undermined by a lack of timely hitting and the Red Raiders' knack for denying hits with outstanding defense as well as making routine plays and pitchers throwing strikes.

"We did a good job of that most of the year," Hennon said. "We did a pretty good job of that today. Texas Tech was just a little bit better than us today."

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The Eagles were in a battle — nothing new there, Hennon said, noting that they won a lot more than they lost by playing hard.

"At the end of each year, you want to look up and feel like you had a group that bought into each other, played together and competed as hard as they could each and every day," said the coach, in his 23rd season at Georgia Southern. "This group did that. There's a lot of trust within this team."

Swan called the team "like a brotherhood" and the reason why he came back for a fifth season in Statesboro and "loved every minute of it."

Avant said he and the other fifth-year seniors bonded as soon as they arrived as freshmen. He also referred to them as like brothers.

"That's why I love Georgia Southern because it's a team aspect," Avant said. "It's not about one single individual. It's family."

Exiting the regional without the title and advancing to a super regional, and then perhaps getting to Omaha, was disappointing, Hennon said, but every other team except the one that wins the College World Series will feel the same way. He's looking at the season from another perspective.

"I can honestly say every day was a joy to coach these guys," he said. "They've been a blessing to me. I think these guys have a been a blessing to a lot of people. There's a lot of people who have really enjoyed watching the way this team has competed. We've got a lot of momentum with our program right now thanks to their efforts."

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern baseball team building on success of 2022 season