Arkansas State's senior pitchers are making sure its run at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament continues.
Colton Gibler held Georgia State to two runs over 6 1/3 innings of relief and, sparked by Zach George's leadoff home run that ignited a four-run first inning, ASU beat Georgia State 6-2 Friday at Riddle-Pace Field in Troy, Ala.
SUN BELT TOURNAMENT
At Troy, Ala.
FRIDAY’S SCORES
Arkansas State 6, Georgia State 2
Texas-Arlington vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (n)
TODAY’S GAMES
Arkansas State vs. South Alabama, 9 a.m.*
Texas State vs. Texas-Arlington/Louisiana-Lafayette, 12:30 p.m.^
*If Arkansas State beats South Alabama, the two teams will play again at 4 p.m.
^If Texas-Arlington or Louisiana-Lafayette beat Texas State, the two teams will play again at 7:30 p.m.
The victory was ASU's second in an elimination game, and it came a day after senior Chandler Hawkins struck out 10 batters over 7 2/3 innings in a victory over Georgia Southern. The victory moves ASU, the No. 8 seed, into a 9 a.m. elimination game today against No. 1 seed South Alabama.
"The train is still rolling and we're still on it, and that's all we care about right now," ASU Coach Tommy Raffo said.
ASU has Kibler, Tyler Zuber and an offense that scored four runs in the first and two in the fourth to thank for that.
George led off the game with his fourth home run of the season to give ASU an early lead, then Tanner Ring, who went 3 for 5, hit an RBI double, Austin Baker scored on a wild pitch and Ring scored on Colin Massanelli's groundout for a 4-0 lead.
George's home run not only kick-started a key inning, it extended his on-base streak to 73 consecutive games.
"I don't even think about it anymore," George said. "It's always about getting the wins. Being a fifth-year senior, you try to soak everything in and try to enjoy it a little bit better."
The Red Wolves' other two runs came in the fourth when Jeremy Brown was hit by a pitch, Lucas Feddersen reached on an error and George walked to load the bases. After Joe Schrimpf and Baker struck out, Ring singled to center to score Federsen and Brown to extend their lead to 6-2.
ASU was held to two hits the rest of the game, but Kibler and Zuber didn't allow Georgia State (30-27) to mount a rally.
Jon Glidewell started for ASU but didn't make it out of the second inning after giving up a double and walking two in the first and then walking the first two batters in the second. Kibler came in to induce two shallow fly-outs and a ground ball to get out of the jam.
"You try to come in and get as many outs without giving up as many runs as fast as possible," Kibler said. "Stop the bleeding, stop the fire and let them get back in and let them swing a little bit."
The senior from Jonesboro gave up a two-run home run to Matt Rose in the second but held the Panthers to four hits the rest of the game. Zuber came in with one out in the eighth to get a double play, and pitched a perfect ninth to set up ASU's rematch today with South Alabama, which beat ASU 6-2 to open the tournament Wednesday.
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Sports on 05/23/2015