Georgia Southern baseball seeks to take advantage of home field at NCAA Statesboro Regional

STATESBORO — The Georgia Southern baseball program hasn't always had the best luck in 13 previous appearances in the NCAA regionals.

Then again, the Eagles had never gotten to host a regional to open the NCAA postseason before this week.

Georgia Southern (40-18) is the top seed of the Statesboro Regional, which opens at 2 p.m. Friday with No. 2 seed Notre Dame (35-14) playing No. 3 seed Texas Tech (37-20) on the ACC Network. Georgia Southern faces No. 4 seed UNC Greensboro (34-28) at 7 p.m. Friday on ESPN+.

The double-elimination tournament will have games through Sunday and possibly on Monday at a packed J.I. Clements Stadium as the 3,100 total of reserved seats, hillside seating and standing-room only already have sold out for each game. Less than 50 SRO tickets remained early Thursday.

"I really thought if we were able to get (to host a regional), knowing the fans and the support we get, (I'm) not surprised at all it was sold out," said Rodney Hennon, in his 23rd season as Eagles head coach.

So for the first time, the Eagles' road to Omaha begins at their home field, which has been a big advantage this season. GS is 24-6 as host compared to 13-11 on the road and 3-1 in neutral-site contests.

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That's no guarantee Georgia Southern will advance to the next round — the Super Regional in a best-of-three series against the winner of the Knoxville Regional — or eventually be one of eight teams to make it to Omaha. The other three teams in Statesboro this weekend have their own plans.

But it's one leg up on the opposition as the Eagles hope to make a long-awaited return to the College World Series that starts June 17.

"You know the ballpark. You know the surface. You know how the park plays. You're comfortable with your surroundings," Hennon said. "And obviously, you'd rather play in front of your fans when possible."

The coach said that when the baseball stadium was renovated in 2005, specifications were targeted to be able to someday host an NCAA regional.

"That was a vision for this program," said Hennon, who started in Statesboro before the 2000 season. "It's pretty cool to see that come to fruition."

Hennon said he was happy to be in his own home instead of a hotel this weekend. Fifth-year shortstop Austin Thompson said of playing at home: "As long as there are no flights involved. We haven't had the best times with the airlines lately. It's nice to just wake up and drive to the field."

About the only issue with playing at home: Ticket requests from family, friends and others. Rincon's Thompson, a graduate of South Effingham High School, said he got 30 to 40 requests. Fifth-year first baseman Jason Swan of Jacksonville, Florida, said he got about the same number.

The players each get four tickets.

"I have a family, so they'll be getting all of those," Thompson said. "Sorry to my buddies. I'll make it up to y'all."

Swan said his four will go to family members, and he told the others to give standing-room only a shot.

Eagles at the College World Series

Georgia Southern has twice in 13 appearances captured regional titles for then-immediate advancement to the CWS.

In 1973 under coach Ron Polk, Georgia Southern College won the Starkville Regional and went 1-2 in the CWS. The Eagles lost to Texas, eliminated Harvard and lost to Minnesota and future National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Dave Winfield. Southern California, with a roster of future major leaguers, won the whole thing.

In 1990 under coach Jack Stallings, GS won the Wichita Regional and went 0-2 at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. The Eagles, which lost to Stanford and Mississippi State, featured future major leaguers Todd Greene, Joey Hamilton and Chris Petersen.

The University of Georgia, by the way, won the CWS that year.

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The 2022 season to this point

Does Georgia Southern have something special going this season? It didn't start out that way as the Eagles lost to then-No. 19 and current No. 1 Tennessee in Knoxville by scores of 9-0, 10-3 and 14-0 on Feb. 18-20.

That underwhelming season-opening road series was followed by a strong response — a 10-6 win over then-No. 19 Georgia Tech on Feb. 25 in Statesboro.

Another instate rival, Georgia, wouldn't escape unscathed, either. The Eagles topped the then-No. 20 Bulldogs 13-5 on March 8 at a neutral site in North Augusta, S.C. UGA countered the next night with a 5-1 victory in Statesboro, and the then-No. 23 squad in red and black also emerged victorious 7-2 on March 29 in Athens.

But there were many more examples of the Eagles' consistently high level of play throughout the season. A stretch of home games on March 4-6 against Miami of Ohio featured three one-run GS victories, including the middle contest in 11 innings.

For the season, Georgia Southern was 10-6 in one-run games, and 3-1 in extra innings.

The Eagles ended up splitting two games with Georgia Tech, which is in the Knoxville Regional, and two games with Kennesaw State, which is in the Hattiesburg Regional.

Four Sun Belt teams advanced to the 64-team first round: Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Texas State and automatic qualifier Louisiana, which plated two runs in the ninth to break the Eagles' hearts 7-6 in the SBC title game last Sunday in Montgomery, Alabama.

A great test with Sun Belt Conference standings as well as national status on the line, came April 8-10 against then-No. 10 Texas State in San Marcos.

It was battle every game, with the Eagles taking the opener 7-4 in 11 innings and 3 hours and 58 minutes. Georgia Southern won the middle game 13-11, with Texas State salvaging a 10-9 victory on a walkoff RBI-double in the Sunday contest.

Two days later on April 12, in their eighth straight road game, the Eagles rallied from a 7-3 deficit with four runs in the ninth inning and two runs in the 10th to down Presbyterian 9-7 in Clinton, S.C.

"The guys kept battling," Hennon said in the April 12 postgame interview with Colin Lacy on the Georgia Southern Sports Network. "We had some big at-bats there in the ninth. It wasn't pretty all night. The guys hung in there and found a way. You'll take it any way you can get it. I'm proud of the way they fought and battled.

"They don't quit. That's all you can do," Hennon said on the postgame show. "We talk about it a lot. Baseball in a lot of ways mirrors life. If there's one thing you want to be able to do in life, that's give all you got every day. This group's done a really good job of that. I'm really proud of them for that."

Where do the Eagles and other teams rank?

The Eagles showed grit time and again, and they'll likely need more as they are the 16th seed of 16 regional hosts. Notre Dame, as the second seed, could be regarded as the best team that isn't hosting.

The Irish are the highest ranked of the four squads in Statesboro in several national polls. Notre Dame is 11th in the USA Today Coaches Poll, followed by Texas Tech at No. 15 and Georgia Southern at No. 24.

Notre Dame is No. 14 in Perfect Game, Texas Tech is 16 and GS is 25. Notre Dame is ninth according to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, with Texas Tech 11th and GS 29th.

D1Baseball.com goes with Notre Dame at 17, Georgia Southern at 21 and Texas Tech at 24. Collegiate Baseball has Texas Tech at No. 15, Notre Dame at No. 23 and Georgia Southern at No. 30.

Baseball America rated Notre Dame at 14 and Texas Tech at 22. Georgia Southern is not ranked, as UNC Greensboro is not in any of the above polls.

The RPI rankings, using strength of schedule as a major criteria, calculated Georgia Southern at No. 11, Notre Dame at No. 13, Texas Tech at No. 45 and UNCG at No. 93.

Putting up strong numbers

Some major statistical categories seem to favor the visitors from South Bend, Indiana, and Lubbock, Texas.

Texas Tech is 10th in Division I in scoring (8.7 runs per game), with Notre Dame 33rd (7.9), UNCG 61st (7.4) and GS 62nd (also 7.4).

Texas Tech also is the best of the four in on-base percentage (21st at .406) and slugging percentage (23rd at .502). The Red Raiders have slugged 83 home runs (tied for 37th in the nation), compared to the Irish's 65 (84th), the Eagles' 61 (100th) and the Spartans' 53 (tied for 138th).

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UNCG has the highest team batting average (10th at .311), followed by No. 43 Notre Dame (.298), No. 45 GS (.297) and No. 59 Texas Tech (.294).

For team ERA, Notre Dame's pitchers are 12th (3.91), Georgia Southern is 84th (4.90), Texas Tech is 115th (5.25) and UNCG is 132nd (5.48).

The Irish have the best strikeouts-to-walks ratio of the quartet (17th at 2.84; 529 K/186 BB) and the fewest walks allowed per nine innings (64th at 3.82; 186 in 437.2 innings).

Statesboro Regional game schedule

FRIDAY

Game 1 — #2 Notre Dame (35-14) vs. #3 Texas Tech (37-20), 2 p.m., ACCN

Game 2 — #1 Georgia Southern (40-18) vs. #4 UNC Greensboro (34-28), 7 p.m., ESPN+

SATURDAY

Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1 p.m.

Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY

Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 2 p.m.

Game 6 — Game 5 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m.

MONDAY

Game 7 — Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (if necessary), 6 p.m.

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: NCAA Statesboro Regional sees Georgia Southern and UNC Greensboro