VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State baseball team heads to Oxford, Ala. to play in the Gulf South Conference Tournament. On Friday, May 3 at 5 p.m. ET, the no. 4 seeded Blazers will square off with the no. 5 seeded Montevallo Falcons at Choccolocoo Park.
 
Click Here for the GSC Championship Central webpage for links to live stats, streaming through FloSports, purchase tickets and more.  The 2024 GSC Baseball Championship will be streamed exclusively on FloSports.  Fans will be required to purchase a subscription. To get preferred GSC pricing ($19.99/month) follow these three (3) easy steps.
 
Step 1: SIGNUP HERE through the football portal, then click JOIN NOW under any of the associated sports. Then click SIGN UP on the top right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Click SIGN UP and follow the subscriptions directions.
Step 3: Once registration is complete, click the go to Flobaseball.com/watch
NOTE: Signing up anywhere else will result in full cost for subscriptions ($29.99/mo). Subscriptions can be canceled at anytime. If you have technical issues, please reach out to FloSports Support.
 
Fans can also access live stats on vstateblazers.com or the GSC Championship Central page while radio broadcasts of the tournament will be broadcasted on 92.1 Talk Radio with Herb Reinhard and Kit Strief on the call.
 
The GSC online mobile ticketing for the conference championship is now active.  Click on the link to the right to purchase tickets for the championship online and redeem admission via mobile phone at the admission gate.
 
Valdosta State (26-18, 18-12 GSC) finished the regular season as the fourth seed, behind no. 1-seed Lee, no. 2-seed Auburn Montgomery, and no. 3-seed Delta State. Lee finished the regular season with a 36-14 (23-7 GSC) record and took two out of three versus Valdosta State earlier this season in Cleveland, Tenn.
 
In the 2024 regular season, the Blazer bats were on fire, as they finished first in the GSC and 24^th in the nation in batting average (.329), while also finishing first in the GSC and 20^th in the nation in on-base percentage (.442), and second in the GSC in slugging percentage (.487). As for the pitching staff, they finished second in ERA (4.97), walks allowed (157), and hits allowed (409).
 
Individually, sophomore Dennis Pierce dominated anyone he faced, as he finished the 2024 regular season first in the GSC and tied for 14^th in the nation in RBI with 65. Pierce ranked second in the GSC in slugging percentage (.773), on-base percentage (.540), and OPS (1.313). Pierce led the team in hits with 60 while also recording 13 home runs, 11 doubles, and three triples. Junior designated hitter Hunter Stowe led the team in doubles with 18 while ranked second on the team in RBIs with 46. While starting in all 44 games, junior shortstop Pedro Moreno tallied 13 doubles and 57 hits for a .320 batting average while leading the team in stolen bases with 21 in 22 attempts at the leadoff spot.
 
On the hill, junior Hunter Booth went 8-0 in 16 appearances with an ERA of 4.15 while holding opponents to a batting average of .265. Out of the bullpen, junior Nick Ferrara appeared in 22 games with an ERA of 2.87 while recording eight saves, good for second in the GSC. Ferrara held opponents to a batting average of .230 on 27 strikeouts while walking 11. Redshirt junior Zac Dodson led the Blazers in starts with 11 and went 3-4 with an ERA of 5.59. The numbers don't give Dodson enough credit, as he led the team in innings with 56.1. In his last three starts, Dodson is 2-0 and has logged 18 innings of work while allowing five runs and striking out 14.
 
The Blazers will face the Falcons of Montevallo in round one, as UM enters this matchup with a record of 27-21 (17-13 GSC) and face VSU as the no. 5 seed. The Falcons are led by head coach Chandler Rose, who is in his 14^th season at the helm of UM. A graduate from UCF in 2004, Rose has a compiled record of 370-301 during his time with the Falcons. In those 14 seasons, Rose had produced five 30+ win seasons and two NCAA Regional appearances in 2018 and 2023.
 
Earlier this season, Montevallo and Valdosta State squared off in Montevallo for a three-game set, where the Blazers took two out of three games. In game one, VSU trailed by four runs in the top of the eighth inning before scoring three in the final two frames to bring the game to a one-score game, but eventually fell 7-6. Sophomore Dennis Pierce hit his seventh homer of the season in the third on a three-run blast to keep things interesting. Senior Jacob Harper hit his lone homer of the season in the game. On the mound, redshirt junior Zac Dodson had a solid start, going 6.2 innings and allowing seven runs (four earned) as he was able to chew up a lot of innings on 97 pitches. In game two, the Blazers won 12-11 in ten innings as VSU surrendered a 5-0 lead before coming back to win in extras. Down two in the top of the ninth, graduate student Owen Lawn hit a two-run blast to tie things up at 11 to move the game to extras, where Jacob Harper drove in senior Ryan Romano to set things up for a Nick Ferrara save in the bottom of the tenth. In game three, senior Pedro Moreno and Dennis Pierce combined for five RBI on four hits as Pierce hit yet another home run over the weekend to give VSU a 9-3 win to clinch the series. On the hill, sophomore Anthony Martens picked up his second win of the season as he allowed two runs in 4.1 innings of work in the seven-inning game.
 
At the plate, UM is led by the duo of Logan Harbin and Connor Crowson. Harbin has started in 44 games and leads the team with a batting average of .346 with a team-high nine home runs and 45 RBI. Harbin is tied for the team lead in doubles with ten while drawing 24 walks for an OBP of .456. As for Crowson, he started in all 48 games and led the team in hits with 60 for a batting average of .335. The infielder drove in 38 Falcons on eight homers, five doubles, and one triple. On the hill, the Falcons use a variety of arms, as four arms have logged upwards of 50 innings. Montevallo's top starter is senior Gino Cozzi, who started in 13 games and had a record of 6-3 with an ERA of 4.48. In those 13 starts, Cozzi logged 68.1 innings of work with 58 hits allowed, 31 walks, and 34 earned runs while striking out 53 batters. Out of the bullpen, senior Chris Foster recorded seven saves in 17 appearances. In those appearances, Foster had an ERA of 2.60 in 17.1 innings pitched and allowed 15 hits while striking out 16.
 
This weekend has serious implications for VSU, as they are currently ranked no. 7 in the NCAA South Region rankings. To view the full story on the NCAA South Region rankings, click here.
 
If Valdosta State were to win, they would face the winner of no. 1-seed Lee and no. 8-seed West Georgia at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 4. If they were to lose, they would face the loser of LU and UWG at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, May 4.