February 23, 2007
Baseball
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIANA STATE BEGINS 2007 SEASON WITH BIG WIN AT GEORGIA STATE

BOX SCORE (HTML)

ATLANTA - The Indiana State baseball team exploded for 18 runs on 17 hits, including a trio of home runs as the Sycamores made head coach Lindsay Meggs a winner in his first game at the helm with an 18-6 dismantling of Georgia State. ISU improves to 1-0 on the season while the Panthers fall to 3-5.

Just a few short days after downing No. 15 Georgia Tech on their home field, the Panthers could not hold down the red hot Sycamore offense. The top two batters in the lineup compiled six hits with four RBI while senior Josh Abercrombie, junior Chris Schmidt and junior Dave Brumagin each post roundtrippers in the victory.

Senior Ryan Hayes earned the opening day start and responded with 4.1 innings of solid work, allowing seven hits and three runs, all earned. Andrew Strange notched the victory (1-0) with 1.1 innings of work, allowing just two hits and a run.

In relief, Adam Lindsay pitched 1.1 innings of two-hit baseball until Skyler Pearson, making his first collegiate pitching appearance, was nearly unhittable over the final two innings, allowing just one hit and no runs to secure the win.

Georgia State trotted out to a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second before the Sycamores got a pair of runs back in the top of the third. Senior Ryan Bond singled home a run, and then Abercrombie drilled a homer to right center to cut the GSU lead down to 3-2.

The Sycamores tied the tally in the top of the fourth when Sean Osborne was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in Casey Martin to make the score 3-3. Indiana State exploded for a trio of runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings when Martin singled home a pair of runs, before Osborne drove in the third for a 6-3 advantage.

In the sixth, Schmidt drilled a three-run homer to left center to give ISU a 9-3 lead. In the top of the seventh, the offensive output continued when Schmidt drove in another run off a fielder’s choice before Brian Siegmund singled in Bond on a line drive to left field. Those two runs gave ISU an 11-4 lead.

The score inched closer at 11-6 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh, but ISU went wild with seven runs in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach.

Abercrombie doubled down the left field line to drive in a pair, and then Nick Ciolli singled with the bases full to tack on another to make it 14-6. The death nail was Brumagin’s homer on the very next pitch which cleared the bases to make the score 18-6 on a grand slam in the very first game of the year.

Pearson mowed down the first two batters in the ninth, allowed a walk, and then fanned Georgia State’s Pelt for the final out of the game.

Schmidt was 2-of-5 in the game with a home run and four RBI, while Brumagin’s lone hit in five at-bats was a grand slam in his first game as a Sycamore.

Bond, hitting leadoff, was 3-of-4 with three runs scored and another driven in, while Abercrombie was 3-of-4 with four runs scored, three RBI and his first homer of the young campaign.

The season-opening series continues Saturday, February 24 with a doubleheader against Georgia State. First pitch of game one is set for 1:00 p.m. (ET).