VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State baseball team heads to St. Petersburg, Fla., for a midweek game at Eckerd College Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.  
 
The Blazers enter the game winners of five-straight after a 4-0 week with wins over Saint Leo and a sweep at Auburn Montgomery.  VSU is 29-12 overall this season and 18-9 in Gulf South Conference play.  The Blazers are scheduled to close out the 2023 home slate on Friday and Saturday at Billy Grant Field at Tommy Thomas Park versus rival West Florida for Senior Weekend. 
 
Fans can access links to live stats and streaming of Tuesday's game at Eckerd by visiting vstateblazers.com and going to the baseball schedule page. 
 
Eckerd enters with an 18-20 record overall and a 6-15 mark in the Sunshine State Conference.  The Tritons dropped two of three to Saint Leo over the weekend, both by one run and defeated the Lions 6-1.
 
The Tritons are led this season by Michael Ballard who is hitting a team-high .386 from the dish on 66 of 171, while she has scored 37 runs with 12 doubles, six home runs and 33 RBI.  Ballard is slugging .561 and reaching base at a .442 clip with 17 walks and one hit batsmen.  Tyler Cox is second in average at a .377 clip on 63 of 167 from the plate.  He has ten doubles, two home runs and 27 RBI.  
 
As a team, Eckerd is hitting .317 from the late with 246 runs scored, 437 hits, 67 doubles, three triples, 25 home runs and 222 RBI.  The team is slugging .424 and reaching base at a .394 clip with 151 walks and 34 hit batters.  On the bump, Eckerd boasts a 5.78 ERA in 339.1 innings of work, allowing 369 hits, 238 runs – 218 earned, walked 142 and fanned 249 as teams are hitting .283 against it.  Individually, Gil Colon is 2-0 with a 4.24 ERA to lead the team.  He has pitched 23.1 innings, allowing 28 hits, 12 runs – 11 earned, walked six and fanned 12, while Payton McIntosh has a 4.63 ERA in 17 appearances and 23.1 innings.  He has allowed 25 hits, 12 earned runs, walked eight and fanned 19.  Jacob Stipp leads the team in innings pitched at 64.2 with a 3-3 record and a 5.71 ERA.  
 
VSU leads the all-time series 7-1 and has won seven-straight, including a pair of wins in Cleveland, Miss., in the NCAA South Regional in 2019.  This marks the third time the teams have met in St. Petersburg, with the teams splitting two games there, Feb. 16-17, 2002.  EC won the opener 10-2, while VSU won the second game 10-4.  Prior to playing in the regional in 2019, the teams had not met since 2006.
 
The Blazers hit .340 for the ween as the team went 4-0.  VSU scored 36 runs on 50 hits, six doubles one home triple, seven home runs and 31 RBI.  The team slugged .537 and reached base at a .379 clip with nine walks and two hit batsmen.  The pitching staff held the opposition to a .254 average on 34 of 134 from the plate, 16 runs scored, eight doubles, one triple, four home runs and 16 RBI.  
 
Sophomore Jovanni Canegitta hit .615 with eight hits, five runs scored, one triple and four RBI, while graduate student Nick Gonzalez hit .421 with eight hits, five runs scored, one double, one home run and six RBI.  On the mound, VSU had a 3.97 ERA in 34 innings, allowing 34 hits, 16 runs – 15 earned, walked eight and fanned 19.  Four different Blazers earned wins for the week, including graduate student JP Gates, who went 6.2 innings, allowing nine hits, three earned runs, walked one and fanned two in the opener at AUM.