The Georgia Southern Eagles secured a huge victory over the Mercer University Bears Wednesday night in J.I Clements Stadium that brought their rankings up to 5-6.

The Eagles were able to stay ahead, except for a couple of times in the beginning of the game, but after the first inning was over, GS took the lead and played to their best potential.

The night was colder than Statesboro had seen in a while, but the Eagles came to play.

With Tyler Owens starting for the Eagles once again, he stood out for yet another game. He threw 64 out of the total 118 pitches thrown in the game and he struck out seven Bears and sent them back to the dugout.

His ability to throw three up and three down kept shutting down the Bears’ chances of scoring and they were not able to gain momentum against the Eagles’ offense of defense.

Something that contributed to the Eagle victory was the amount of stolen bases that GS earned throughout the game.

Mason McWhorter, junior right fielder, and and redshirt junior, Matt Anderson, were two players who were all in this game and were not afraid to steal bases.

McWhorter’s steal was in the bottom of the second inning and Anderson’s was in the bottom of the fourth, both contributing to Eagles getting to home plate.

A standout player for the Eagles was redshirt senior outfielder, Tyler Martin. Martin was able to rake in two doubles for the Eagles and had a total of three RBIs on the game. This was the most out of any player against the Bears.

Being the third batter in the lineup, Martin currently sits at a .318 average this early in the season and hopes to do nothing but improve as the Eagles move forward.

The next game for the Eagles will be Friday, as the University of North Carolina – Asheville travels to Statesboro for the three game series against GS. The first pitch is at 6:30 p.m. and the game will be live on True Blue TV.