Georgia
Coastal Carolina sweeps doubleheader from Georgia Southern
CONWAY, SC –
Game 1
No. 24 Coastal Carolina used a strong pitching performance and timely hitting to defeat Georgia Southern 7-2 in the front end of a doubleheader Saturday at Springs Brooks Stadium.
The Chanticleers (14-5, 2-0 Sun Belt) struck early with two runs in the first inning, highlighted by Sebastian Alexander’s RBI double and Walker Mitchell’s run-scoring single. After Georgia Southern (10-8, 0-2 Sun Belt) cut the deficit in half with a solo home run from Jonathan Jaime in the second, Coastal Carolina responded with a run in the fourth before breaking the game open with a four-run fifth.
Wells Sykes delivered the big blow in the fifth, launching a three-run home run to left field to cap the rally. Alexander and Mitchell each had multi-hit games, while Kaleb Huffman added an RBI double.
Right-hander Cameron Flukey (2-0) earned the win, striking out nine over six innings while allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits. Luke Jones finished the game with three scoreless innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Georgia Southern starter Jax Lewis (2-1) took the loss after giving up six runs on 10 hits in 4.2 innings.
Game 2
No. 24 Coastal Carolina erupted for eight runs in the fourth inning and rode another dominant start from Riley Eikhoff to an 11-1, seven-inning victory over Georgia Southern on Sunday at Springs Brooks Stadium.
With the win, the Chanticleers (15-5, 3-0 Sun Belt) completed a sweep of the weekend series and opened conference play with three-straight victories.
Eikhoff (4-0) turned in another stellar outing, striking out eight while allowing one run on six hits over 6.2 innings. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter and threw 62 of his 75 pitches for strikes.
He gave way to Matt Joyce who got the final out of the game. For Joyce, it completed a long injury comeback and was his first appearance on the mound since June 6, 2022, a span of 1,013 days.
Dean Mihos sparked Coastal’s offense with a solo home run in the first inning and later added an RBI single in the decisive fourth. The Chanticleers sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning, capitalizing on three hit batters, a walk, and timely hits. Caden Bodine, Sebastian Alexander, and Walker Mitchell each drove in runs, while Wells Sykes added a two-hit performance with an RBI.
Georgia Southern (10-9, 0-3) briefly tied the game at 1-1 in the third on a solo homer from Josh Tate, but the Eagles were unable to generate consistent offense against Eikhoff.
Coastal tacked on two more runs in the sixth, with Freddy Rodriguez coming off the bench to deliver an RBI single and later scoring on a wild pitch.
The loss was charged to Georgia Southern’s Joey White (0-1), who gave up two runs without recording an out in relief.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Chants will play the next eight games away from home, starting with a midweek game at Campbell on Tuesday, March 18 at 6 p.m. ET on FloCollege. From there, CCU heads to No. 21 Troy (March 21-23), No. 4 Clemson (March 25) and Texas State (March 28-30) before finally returning home to play a return game with Campbell on Tuesday, April 1 at 6 p.m. inside Springs Brooks Stadium.
Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to the Clarion Ledger
If you are not a subscriber, consider subscribing now. You will also get access to the Clarion Ledger’s E-Edition, the electronic replica of the print publication along with print archives. The E-edition is also available on our app.
USA Today Network
Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
-
Fitness6 minutes agoThis low-impact exercise works your entire body in minutes – how to do the ‘caterpillar walk’ properly
-
Movie Reviews18 minutes agoReview: Curry Barker’s ‘Obsession’
-
World30 minutes agoChristopher Nolan Defends ‘The Odyssey’ Armor and Casting Travis Scott After Online Backlash: ‘What Is the Best Speculation?’
-
News36 minutes agoBetty Broderick, Whose Murder Trial Was Grist for TV Movies, Dies at 78
-
Politics42 minutes agoDistracted and Bogged Down, Trump and Xi Enter a Summit of Reduced Ambitions
-
Business48 minutes agoF.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns After Weeks of Pressure
-
Science54 minutes agoA Taxidermist Gives Dead Animals a New Life
-
Health60 minutes ago‘Trimester Zero’: What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Expect