The Georgia Southern baseball team is coming off an historic season in which they host an NCAA Regional for the first time in school history and finished the season with an impressive 41-20 record including a 23-7 mark in the Sun Belt conference. 

The Eagles have been picked as the preseason favorites to win the Sun Belt this season despite losing some key players to graduation. Georgia Southern does return some talented players though notably four Eagles earned spots on D1-Baseball’s preseason player rankings. Two position players in Noah Ledford and Jessie Sherrill and two pitchers in Ty Fisher and Jay Thompson.  

The Eagles get the 2023 season underway Friday as they host West Virginia in the first of a three-game series. Head coach Rodney Hennon feels the team learned a lot last year and thinks the team is ready for even more success this season. 

“We have some good players coming back both positionally as well as on the pitching staff,” said Hennon. “Certainly, that experience we had last year in hosting the NCAA Regional is helpful but we have a mature enough group to know you have to close that chapter on 2022 and they are hungry for more this year.” 

Noah Ledford was named as the Sun Belt preseason player of the year after leading the league in RBIs with 70 last year as well as hitting .348 with 17 home runs. Jessie Sherrill led the team with a .361 average with 62 runs scored and 13 steals. In addition, the Eagles return Sam Blancato, J.P. Tighe, Kyler Hultgren and Jarrett Brown as well as some new additions. 

“I feel like we return a good group with plenty of leadership,” said Hennon. “We have some new guys we are counting on as well in Luke Hatcher and Zane Faulk who are a couple of Junior College transfers. We have a couple of freshmen in Jonathan Jaime and A.J. Wenrich who will get a chance to get some at bats as well.” 

On the mound the Eagles return ace Ty Fisher who was 6-2 with a team-low 2.58 ERA and 60 strikeouts. Out of the bullpen the Eagles can turn to Jay Thompson who led the league in appearances with 37 which was good for third in the nation. Thompson had a 7-4 record with 63 strikeouts. Among the other pitchers returning are Jalen Paden who led the team in strikeouts with 64, Ga’von Wray who was 7-1 in 2022 and Ben Johnson who was 5-3 in 2022. 

“Ty Fisher will get the ball in our first game and then we will turn things over to Ben Johnson Saturday,” said Hennon. “We have some great veterans on the pitching staff as well. In addition, we have some talented newcomers including freshman Zach Harris who will get the start on Sunday. We also have a slew of guys, both Junior College transfers and true freshmen who will get their chances out of the bullpen.” 

The Eagles open with West Virginia Friday at 6:30 with games Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 1:00. In addition to the Mountaineers the Eagles also play Georgia Tech and Georgia among others as they prepare for a grueling conference schedule which includes Southern Miss who is currently raned No. 18 in the country. 

“Once again we are going to play a very tough non-conference schedule,” Hennon said. “When you look at the Sun Belt with the recent additions, along with an already tough baseball league, I think you are going to see our league get better each year.