Baseball | 3/31/2016 8:33:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State will travel to Statesboro, Ga., to meet the Georgia Southern Eagles for just the second series between the two teams in their histories. Both the Bobcats and the Eagles are in a three-way tie with UL Lafayette for second place in the Sun Belt Conference behind South Alabama so the series will play a large role in how the top of the SBC shakes out early on in conference play.
 
Be sure to check in throughout the weekend at Texas State Baseball's twitter account, @TXStateBaseball and at www.txstatebobcats.com for any possible schedule changes due to weather.
 
Game Info: Texas State at Georgia Southern
Site: J.I. Clements Stadium – Statesboro, Ga.
Date: Friday, April 1 – Sunday, April 3
Time: Friday – 6 p.m. | Saturday – 6 p.m. | Sunday – 12 p.m.
 
Probable Pitching Matchup
Friday: #21 RHP Lucas Humpal (4-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. #14 LHP Evan Challenger (4-2, 2.63 ERA)
Saturday: #27 RHP Jeremy Hallonquist (2-1, 1.49 ERA) vs. #19 RHP Chase Cohen (2-1, 3.21 ERA)
Sunday: #9 LHP Cory Geisler (2-0, 1.06 ERA) vs. #44 RHP Brian Eichhorn (3-1, 2.30 ERA)
 
The Series                                                                                                  
It has been a short series between the Eagles and Bobcats with just the three games in San Marcos last season between the teams. The Bobcats took the series, 2-1, winning the Friday and Sunday games, and capping the series with an impressive 11-4 victory after getting the first win by a score of 6-5.
 
Last Meeting
Texas State won the last meeting, 11-4, and saw great pitching performances from starter Jeremy Hallonquist and Cory Geisler in relief last season. They combined for eight strikeouts and allowed just four hits. Meanwhile, Granger Studdard, Tanner Hill and Derek Scheible all pelted two hits to lead Texas State while Studdard, Hill and Ben McElroy all struck three RBIs in the game.
 
On the Eagles
Georgia Southern's calling card has been pitching and defense as the team has built a 15-9 overall record and 6-3 Sun Belt Conference record. This season, opponents are hitting just .209 against the Eagles while the pitching staff boasts a team ERA of just 3.05. Friday night starter Evan Challenger has a 2.63 ERA with 35 strikeouts to just nine walks. Opponents are only hitting .197 against him. Meanwhile, the team's Saturday and Sunday starters are both freshmen, but they've combined for a 5-2 record so far this year with 42 strikeouts between the two of them with just 16 walks. Teams are hitting .200 against Chase Cohen and Brian Eichhorn.
 
In fact, Georgia Southern's 3.05 ERA is second in the conference to Troy's 3.00 team ERA while the Eagles' .209 opponents' batting average leads the conference. The Eagles are second in the SBC in strikeouts (198) and first in runners picked off (12), hits allowed (164), earned runs allowed (75), doubles allowed (20) and triples allowed (1).
 
Offensively, Texas State will have to be on the lookout for hit leader Logan Baldwin who bats .333 with 32 hits on the season. He is the only regular contributor above .300 for the Eagles while the team has a .248 batting average. The Bobcats have 68 more hits this season than Georgia Southern. The Eagles try to generate offense with stolen bases as they have attempted 40 this season, 27 of which have been successful.
 
Georgia Southern is coming off a midweek loss to Georgia Tech, 6-1, and is 4-4 in the team's last eight games. However, the Eagles do have a win over Georgia and two wins over Memphis this season.
 
On the Bobcats
Texas State is currently on the team's toughest stretch of the season to date amid a five-game losing streak. Still though, the Bobcats are tied for second in the Sun Belt Conference along with Georgia Southern and UL Lafayette. Throughout the stretch, though, Texas State has continued to hit well, averaging nearly 11 hits per game.
 
The Bobcats are one of the most potent offenses in the Sun Belt Conference right now as they are tied for the conference lead in batting average (.303) and leads the SBC in slugging percentage, home runs and total bases while sitting second in runs, hits, doubles and triples.
 
Across the past five games, Tanner Hill has been on fire with a .455 batting average, 10 hits, three homers, two walks and six runs scored. Jaylen Hubbard has also hit well with a .429 batting average while Granger Studdard has hit .348 in the past five games.
 
Texas State is looking for the team's pitching to return to form this weekend. The team's pitching staff trails only Georgia Southern in the conference in opposing batting average and boasts two of the top 10 pitchers in the SBC in earned run average and opposing batting average in Lucas Humpal and Jeremy Hallonquist. Sunday starter Cory Geisler is well on his way to joining that group as he pitches more often, currently standing with a 1.06 ERA and a .183 opponents' batting average with 15 strikeouts to four walks in 17.0 innings of work.
 
A Look Ahead
The Bobcats have a busy week ahead after Georgia Southern, but the positive note is that it begins a nine-game home stretch. Texas State will play two midweek games in the upcoming week against UTSA and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before hosting Nevada for a three-game weekend series followed by a midweek game against Rice before hosting Little Rock in the team's next conference series.