Despite a late effort, the Georgia Southern baseball team fell to The Citadel 3-2 at J.I. Clements Stadium on Tuesday.

“We did just enough to beat ourselves tonight,” head coach Rodney Hennon said. “Not to take anything away from The Citadel. They got a great outing from their starter. Their bullpen did a nice job for them. But a combination of that and the mistakes on the bases really hurt us tonight.”

Freshman LHP Josh Slate got the start on the mound for the Eagles (5-3) and was able to go three innings. He threw 62 pitches and allowed three runs – all earned.

After those three innings, coach Hennon pulled Slate and sent in sophomore LHP Byron Yelverton who went 1.2 innings followed by sophomore RHP Caleb Pressey who went for one. Both Yelverton and Pressey combined for three strikeouts and no earned runs.

Junior LHP Jason Richman came in to close the game for the Eagles for the last 3.1 innings. Richman did not allow any runs to cross the plate either and struck out seven of the 12 batters he faced.

Junior 3B Spencer Duffie went 3-4 at the plate while junior DH Charles Sheffield went 1-2 in his first appearance as an Eagle.

A single, double and two walks led to the Bulldogs’ (4-4) first run in the top of the second inning. In the next inning, Slate walked a batter while the Eagles had two outs, and The Citadel decided they were not going to go quietly. The Bulldogs hit a homerun scoring two and giving them a 3-0 lead.

It seemed like that was it for the Eagles. All signs pointed to a shutout. Then, The Citadel got sloppy.

A leadoff walk put senior LF Hunter Thomas on first base. Duffie came to the plate and singled to third, advancing Thomas.

Finally, senior SS Dalton Busby came to bat and reached on a fielding error by the first baseman, scoring Thomas. Moments later, Busby scored on a senior CF Kody Adams single. These two scores closed the gap, giving The Citadel a 3-2 lead going into the top of the eighth inning.

However, that was it. No more runs scored for either team, and The Citadel went home with a 3-2 victory over the Eagles.

“We’ve just got to do some of the little things better in a game like this to come out on the other side,” Hennon said.

Georgia Southern heads to North Florida tomorrow where they have not won since 2008. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.