Georgia Southern Downs Elon, Returns to Title Game

Game 11: #6 Georgia Southern 10, #3 Elon 7
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SoCon Tournament Central

GREENVILLE, S.C. - No. 6 seed Georgia Southern punched a return ticket to the Southern Conference Baseball Championship game with a 10-7 win over No. 3 seed Elon on Saturday afternoon at Fluor Field.

The Eagles (33-26) are making their second consecutive championship game appearance and third in the past four seasons. GSU, a five-time SoCon tournament champion, won the 2009 tournament in Greenville and last season's championship in Charleston.

Elon (33-26) is eliminated with its second loss in the tournament.

Eagle catcher Chase Griffin was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, including a triple, to pace the GSU offense. Tyler Avera, Michael Burruss, and Garren Palmer each drove in a pair of runs for the Eagles, which have outscored opponents 37-10 in three tournament games.

Georgia Southern took advantage of a lead-off walk to Scooter Williams when Tyler Griffin singled him home to open the scoring.

GSU second baseman Avera had the first of his two RBI singles in the fourth inning to make it 2-0 Eagles.

Ryan Kinsella responded in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single of his own, driving in Alex Swim and cutting the margin to 2-1.

The Eagles wasted little time in stretching the advantage, however, plating four more runs in the fifth on four singles, a hit-by-pitch, and a walk.

In the Eagle sixth, Griffin laced a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Zac Lenns, and T.D. Davis plated Scooter Williams with a two-out single, giving GSU an 8-1 cushion.

Elon made things interesting with a six-run seventh, but after having the tying run on third and go-ahead run at first with one out, Kyle Rowe came in from the GSU bullpen to induce a Sebastian Gomez pop-out and a Jake Luce ground out to first base, keeping the lead at 8-7.

The Eagles added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth.

Rowe faced the final eight batters of the contest, retiring each one, including three strikeouts. He earned his sixth save of the season.

Kinsella finished the day with three RBIs for the contest and 10 for the tournament, while Quinn Bower and Chris Bresnahan were the leading Phoenix hitters with two each.

GSU starter Will Middour improved to 3-3 after surrendering two runs, just one earned, in six full innings of work. He fanned four.

Elon's Kyle Webb was lifted after 4.1 innings on the hill, allowing six runs on eight hits. He fell to 4-4 overall.

Sunday's championship game, against either No. 4 seed Samford or No. 8 seed Furman, will start at 2 p.m. ET and be broadcast live on ESPN3.