Georgia Southern baseball swept No. 18 UGA this weekend making it the third year in a row the Eagles have taken the series from Georgia.

Rainy conditions forced the teams to play 16 innings on Sunday after game two was cut short in the bottom of the second inning on Saturday. The UGA series is usually a sellout crowd but was less than half its typical volume because of the weather.

With the sweep of UGA, GS moved to 8-4.

THE GOOD

The bullpen was excellent.

LHP Jason Richman, RHP Caleb Pressey, RHP Ryan Frederick and RHP Chris Brown combined to allow two runs in 14.2 innings pitched over the weekend.

On Wednesday against North Florida, Brown gave up three earned runs in the bottom of the ninth and let the Ospreys walk-off with a win. Closers need a short memory and Brown didn’t let Wednesday’s outing affect him against UGA.

He was flawless across the three games.

Brown picked up three saves in three games. He didn’t allow a single hit on his way to holding the Bulldogs scoreless in 4.1 innings pitched. He has five saves this year.

Richman hasn’t missed a beat from last season. He’s been the workhorse for the Eagles’ bullpen once again.

The submariner threw 6.0 innings in two outings, allowing only one hit. He gave up his first run of the year on Friday (unearned), and struck out seven Dawgs.

Good relief pitching is necessary in tight ballgames.

Each of the Eagles’ last five games was decided by one run. They lost consecutive contests to the Citadel 3-2 on Tuesday and North Florida 5-4 on Wednesday.

“Looking at [our losses] in the midweek, we were just trying to play a good game and get a win,” RF Aaron Mizell said. “We played well, and when we do that, we’re as good as anybody.”

Losing two close games to teams Georgia Southern should have beaten left a bad taste in the Eagles mouths, so turning around and sweeping UGA in straight one-run games was a good sign of life.

In both game one and game three, GS came from behind to win.

In the seventh inning on Friday, Mizell roped a two-RBI double to the right field warning track that put the Eagles in front 4-3. In the seventh inning on Sunday, Catcher Chase Griffin had a two-RBI single up the middle to put the Eagles in front 4-3.

THE BAD

It’s a little nit-picky to label anything as ‘bad’ any time a team sweeps a nationally ranked in-state rival.

But as good as the pitching was this weekend, they were battling their own team at times. Georgia Southern’s defensive struggles continue to remain a problem.

The Eagles committed seven errors over the weekend. Even on plays that weren’t scored as an error, poor defense kept Bulldog runners on base.

On Friday, UGA had a runner on first in the second inning with no outs. 3B Will Hudgins grounded a double-play ball cleanly but his throw to 2B Kent Rollins was in the dirt. Rollins gloved it to get the lead runner, but couldn’t make the throw to first.

Instead of two outs and no one on base, the Bulldogs had one out and a runner still on first.

Two singles later that runner scored, tying the game at 1-1. The next batter flied out to left field, which should have ended the inning if GS could’ve turned the double play cleanly. Instead, the following batter singled, giving UGA a 2-1 lead in the second.

The only game the team has played without an error this season was against Georgia Tech, a 4-7 loss.

Georgia Southern doesn’t have any time to relish in the sweep of Georgia because they play another quality team from the peach state tonight.

The Mercer Bears make the trip down I-16 to play the Eagles at 6 p.m.