STATESBORO, Ga. – The Fairfield University Baseball team led for seven innings in their 2018 season opener, but Georgia Southern used two sacrifice flies in the bottom of the seventh to take a 4-3 victory over the Stags.
 
The Stags (0-1) grabbed that lead right out of the gate when Anthony Boselli, in his first at-bat with the Stags, singled through the left side for a two-out two RBI single. Boselli's base knock brought home Tim Zeng and Jack Gethings, who had doubled in his first at-bat of 2018.
 
John Signore allowed that 2-0 lead to hold until the fifth inning when freshman Jason Swan doubled through the left side to even the score at 1-1. The Eagles, who won 38 games last season, opened the scoring with a Matt Anderson sacrifice fly in the fourth.
 
Signore would be relieved by Brendan Harkin who tossed 1.1 hitless innings in his 2018 debut.
 
Fairfield would get the lead back in the seventh after manufacturing a run. Drew Blake led off the inning with a walk and would advance to second on a wild pitch. Brett Morrison, who got the start at second base, would sacrifice Blake to third with one out. Tom Ryan would launch a ball into center field that was deep enough to score Blake and give the Stags a 3-2 lead.
 
The Eagles would load the bases with nobody out in the bottom half of the inning and while Trey McLoughlin limited the damage by not allowing a hit the rest of the way, the Eagles were able to grab the lead on back-to-back sacrifice flies.
 
The latter came off the bat of Noah Searcy and would give the Eagles a lead they would keep.
 
Gethings would lead off the eighth with a double, but was stranded in scoring position as the Eagles were able to hold on.
 
Gethings reached base four times with two doubles as he recorded two of Fairfield's four hits. Signore struck out six in his 4.1 innings of work.
 
The two teams will clash again tomorrow at 3pm.