- Thomas’ Career High 30 Leads Georgia State To 62-60 Win Over Mercer - November 14, 2018
- Georgia State Unanimous Preseason Favorite; Simonds Sun Belt Preseason Player Of The Year; Mitchell All-Sun Belt Preseason Second Team - October 26, 2018
- Georgia State Football: Panthers Win 24-20 On Last Second TD - August 31, 2018
LEADING OFF
* Georgia State concludes a five-game homestand by hosting Furman Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the GSU Baseball Complex.
* Under the direction of first-year pitching coach Chris Bootcheck, a former Major League pitcher, the GSU staff ranks third in the Sun Belt with a 3.54 ERA.
* The GSU bullpen is 7-0 with five saves and a 2.78 ERA, led by Logan Barnette (3-0, 1 save, 1.98), Rhett Harper (3 saves, 2.31), Devin Vainer (10 app., 0.00 ERA) and Liam Henry (8 app., 1 save, 2.53).
* The Panther pitching staff held No. 14 Ole Miss to one run on six hits in 19 innings in last week’s two-game series split. Six different Panther hurlers threw in the series.
* Freshman pitcher Hunter Gaddis, a 6-5 right-hander who is now the Panthers’ Saturday starter, leads the team with a 3-0 record and a 1.08 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .163 against him, and he has 25 strikeouts in 25 innings.
* Gaddis took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over UTA Arlington.
* Senior center fielder Ryan Blanton is hitting .299 and has a team-leading four homers, 18 RBI and 14 runs scored. He led off the 2017 season with a home run vs. Marshall, the fifth time in his career he has led off a game with a homer.
* Shortstop Justin Jones has two game-winning hits in the last two weeks. In the March 8 win at No. 14 Ole Miss, Jones delivered a two-run double in the top of the 11th inning for the 2-0 victory. On March 18 in a 1-1 game vs. UT Arlington, he hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and GSU won 2-1.
* Two players who missed the 2016 season due to injury have figured prominently already for the Panthers. Outfielder-DH Cam Sperry (knee) is hitting .271 with a homer and seven RBI. Relief pitcher Logan Barnette (shoulder) is 3-0 with one save and a 1.98 ERA.
* Georgia State’s 2017 schedule is perhaps the most ambitious in school history. The 2017 slate includes four different Power Five opponents and 13 games against 2016 NCAA Tournament teams, including a home series with Coastal Carolina, the defending national champions and the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference.
* Eleventh-year head coach Greg Frady earned his 500th college coaching victory in the Panthers’ 12-4 victory over Northern Kentucky on March 4. Frady now has 317 wins at Georgia State, plus 187 wins at North Florida C.C. (1991-96) for a total of 504.
* Frady is Georgia State’s career leader in victories after passing Mike Hurst (293) on March 20, 2016. In the last year he has also been honored with two different Hall of Fame inductions, joining the German Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame and the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame.
SERIES vs. FURMAN
* Georgia State and Furman are meeting for the first time since 2007, when the teams split a pair of meetings. That year the Panthers won 7-3 at Furman but fell 6-4 in Atlanta.
* Furman holds a 16-15 lead in the all-time series, which began in 1971.
