San Marcos, Texas – The No. 6 seed Georgia Southern slapped 15 hits and scored 13 runs to tie its second highest single-game total of the season in route to a 13-4 win in the first round of the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship against No. 3 seed Little Rock on Wednesday morning at Bobcat Ballpark.

Georgia Southern (34-23) advances to tomorrow’s 4 p.m. CT game against the winner of today’s second game between No. 2 seed South Alabama and No. 7 seed UT Arlington from Bobcat Ballpark. Little Rock (26-27) will play tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. CT against the losing team of the matchup.

Four of the top five hitters in the Georgia Southern lineup had three hits and all student-athletes in the lineup had either a hit, a run scored or a RBI. Junior Jordan Wren led the way by going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI while senior Hunter Thomas went 3-for-5 with two runs and RBI apiece.

Georgia Southern junior Evan Challenger (7-4) earned the win after he tossed seven innings and scattered six hits and three earned runs. Little Rock junior Matt McDowell took the loss to fall to 4-3 on the season after he allowed six earned in 4 1/3 innings pitched.

Georgia Southern started the scoring in the top of the second inning. Wren beat out an infield single before senior Hunter Thomas followed with a double in the right center field gap and junior Cal Baker walked to load the bases. Junior CJ Brazil and freshman CJ Ballard followed with back-to-back RBI groundouts to put the Eagles up 2-0.

Senior Kent Rollins was hit by a pitch to flip the lineup and put runners on first and third. Junior Evan McDonald laced a grounder to short that was mishandled and allowed Baker to score. Sophomore Logan Baldwin followed with a RBI single to cap the four-run inning for the Eagles.

Little Rock came up in the bottom of the inning and cut into the deficit with two runs. Junior Nik Gifford hit a lead-off single and junior Cameron Knight was hit by a pitch to set the table for junior Zach Baker. Baker singled to center to plate Gifford and senior Kyle Kirk followed with a walk to load the bases. Junior Hunter Owens hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Knight.

The Trojans tried to spark a rally in the bottom of the third inning when 2016 Student-Athlete of the Year, junior Ryan Scott, was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Thomas singled to left to put two runners on with no outs. Knight walked and Gunter followed with a sacrifice fly to right to plate Scott and cut the Eagles’ lead to 4-3.

The Eagles plated two runs in the top of the fourth when sophomore Logan Baldwin singled to center to plate freshman CJ Ballard and junior Ryan Cleveland reached on a fielder’s choice to score junior Evan McDonald.

The offensive output continued for Georgia Southern in the top of the fifth inning as Thomas led off the frame with a home run off of the scoreboard in right field. Two batters were hit by pitches prior to Rollins’ two-RBI double down the left field line. McDonald then followed with a RBI single to right field to push the Georgia Southern advantage to 10-4.

The Eagles tacked on another run in the top of the sixth when Thomas slapped a double to center field to score Wren from first.

Wren then closed the scoring with a two-RBI single in the top of the eighth inning.

The 2016 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship continues on Wednesday with three more games from Bobcat Ballpark on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.