Georgia Southern Baseball Team Wins the SoCon

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Georgia Southern starting pitcher Chris Mederos was dominant prior to a rain delay, and Kyle Blackburn broke a scoreless deadlock with a three-run home run in the sixth inning to propel the second-seeded Eagles to a 7-3 win over No. 1 seed Elon in the championship game of the 2009 Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field.

FULL HIGHLIGHTS TONIGHT ON WSAV’S SUNDAY NIGHT HIGHLIGHT ZONE AT 11:15PM.

The tournament championship is the Eagles’ fourth overall and first since 2002.

With the win, Georgia Southern (42-15) has earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Baseball Regionals. The Phoenix (40-16) will have to await word on its NCAA Regionals destination.

After five scoreless innings by both teams, Blackburn hit his third home run of the tournament, a three-run bomb over the train tracks beyond the right field fence, to put the Eagles up 3-0 in the top of the sixth inning.

Following a 2:09 rain delay which began minutes after Blackburn’s shot, the Eagles tallied three more runs in the top of the seventh. Two hit batters and a walk loaded the bases before Griffin Benedict came to the plate and singled to left field, scoring both Kevin Bowles and Brian Pierce. Another hit batter, followed by a wild pitch by Elon’s Bobby Kennedy, bringing home the Eagles’ Ty Wright and making the score 6-0.

After being held scoreless for seven innings, Elon was to push across three runs in the final two innings, but it was not enough to overtake GSU.

Leading the way for Georgia Southern was the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, Blackburn. The junior was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs, giving him three home runs and six extra-base hits for the tournament. Benedict had a pair of RBIs on Sunday.

In a losing effort, Bennett Davis was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles for Elon.

Mederos (11-1) pitched five innings, allowing three hits and no runs while striking out six with no walks. For his effort, the junior, who was unable to return to the mound following the lengthy rain delay, was named to the All-Tournament team.

Elon and Georgia Southern are among the teams which will find out their postseason destinations on the NCAA Baseball selection show, airing on ESPN at 12:30 p.m. (ET) Monday.

SoCon Baseball All-Tournament Team

SP     Asher Wojciechowski, The Citadel
SP     Chris Mederos, Georgia Southern
RP     Thomas Girdwood, Elon
C       Richard Jones, The Citadel
1B     David Towarnicky, Appalachian State
2B     Marcus Rose, Furman
SS     Brent Greer, Western Carolina
3B     Chase Austin, Elon
OF     Sonny Meade, The Citadel
OF     Pat Irvine, Elon
OF     Ty Wright, Georgia Southern
DH     Kyle Blackburn, Georgia Southern

Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Walt Nadzak Award

Kyle Blackburn, Georgia Southern