The Sports Inquirer

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Matt Rose hit his ninth home run of the season and Caden Bailey had a career-high four RBI as Sun Belt Conference leader Georgia State clinched its series with UALR with a 12-5 victory Saturday at the GSU Baseball Complex.

Georgia State won its fifth straight conference game and improved to 19-13 overall and 8-2 in the Sun Belt.

For the second straight day, Georgia State rallied after falling behind early. UALR (10-16, 7-6 Sun Belt) took a 4-1 lead in the third and Georgia State still trailed 4-2 before scoring five runs in the sixth inning and five more in the seventh.

“If you look at our games, the games have been a little bit back and forth, but we have won the sixth, the seventh, the eighth and the ninth innings, and sometimes the 10th and the 11th. We’ve won those games in the back half with patience offensively, and our bullpen has been great,” Georgia State head coach Greg Frady said.

Freshman Will Johnson led off the bottom of the sixth inning with his first homer to pull the Panthers within 4-3. David Levy and Ryan Blanton followed with singles, putting runners at second and third when Blanton moved up on the throw. Justin Jones was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Bailey, who smacked a bases-clearing triple to the right field corner to put the Panthers ahead 6-4. With those three RBI, the senior infielder topped 100 for his career.

Joey Roach drove in Bailey with a one-out single for his second RBI of the day and his Sun Belt-leading 31st of the season, giving GSU a 7-4 lead after six.

After UALR got one run back in the top of the seventh, the Panthers broke the game open with five in the bottom of the frame.

Johnson walked, moved to second on a wild pitch and then to third on David Levy’s sacrifice. That prompted an intentional walk to Ryan Blanton, and with runners at first and third, Jones delivered a single to left field to plate Johnson and extend GSU’s lead to 8-5.

Bailey drove in his fourth run with a single, and Jones scored on a wild pitch for a 10-5 advantage. Then Rose blasted his two-run homer to left, and the Panthers led 12-5.

GSU starter Kenny Anderson (3-2) pitched into the seventh inning, allowing five runs but only two earned on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

Jerry Stuckey, Georgia State’s career leader in appearances, relieved Anderson with two outs and two on in seventh and GSU holding a 7-5 lead. The senior right-hander got Ryan Scott to ground out for the third out and then pitched the final two innings for his first save of the season.

“Jerry came in after a great start by Kenny Anderson and finished the game for us. I could not be more proud of Jerry, who became our all-time leader in appearances last game,” Frady said.

“I had a good feeling about Kenny. I thought he would come out and pitch us a good game, and he did that. Kenny is a veteran leader on our team, and he pitched us into the seventh inning, which is really important.”