College of Charleston
Georgia Southern
Beckham?s Homers Lead GSU Past CofC, 10-7
4/14/2007 4:00:00 AM | Baseball
Jeremy Beckham drove in five runs with a pair of homers and Georgia Southern's bullpen allowed only one run over the final four innings as the Eagles evened its three-game Southern Conference series with a 10-7 win over 27th-ranked College of Charleston before 1,722 at J.I. Clements Stadium on Saturday.
With the win, the Eagles improved to 20-19 overall and 3-8 in league play. The Cougars had their seven-game winning streak snapped and fell to 26-9 and 9-2. Charleston won Friday night's opener, 19-6.
After Oliver Marmol gave Charleston a 1-0 third inning lead with a solo homer to left, Beckham hit a three-run homer to left in the bottom of the fourth to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead. An unearned run in the fifth stretched GSU's lead to 4-1.
Charleston took the lead in the top of the sixth. Chris Campbell's three-run homer to left evened the score a 4-4, and Alex Garabedian's two-run single to center gave the Cougars a 6-4 lead.
Beckham struck again in the bottom of the sixth. After Brian Pierce led off the inning with a double down the left field line, Beckham tied the game with a two-run homer to left center, a line shot off Charleston starter Jeff Beliveau.
Griffin Benedict gave the Eagles the lead for good later in the inning when his two-out double to right scored Matt Miller and Brett Maxwell for an 8-6 advantage.
The Eagles added a run in the seventh on a bases loaded walk for a 9-6 lead. Charleston's Ben Lasater cut the margin to 9-7 with a solo homer to center in the eighth, his team-leading ninth of the season. GSU added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on Matt Miller's two-out, bases loaded infield hit.
Kyle Kamppi (2-2), who picked up the win, combined with A.J. Battisto to shut down the Cougars the rest of the way. Kamppi allowed a run in 2 2/3 innings, while Battisto picked up his fifth save when he blanked the Cougars over the final 1 1/3 innings. Mitch Besselievre (1-2) suffered the loss.
Campbell paced the Cougars with three hits and three RBI. Pierce and Beckham combined to go 6-for-8 with five RBI and two walks for GSU.
The series finale is Sunday at 1:30.
