As cold as it’s been in Atlanta and with men’s basketball struggling, I’m already starting to look forward to Georgia State baseball. The Panthers open the regular season with a three-game series with Cleveland State Feb. 20-22 at Panthersville. The CAA’s preseason baseball poll was recently released and the Panthers have been picked to finish fourth behind James Madison, George Mason and UNC Wilmington. Georgia State has 17 returning letterman from last year’s team that went 33-23, including pitcher Robinson Polanco and infielders Bradley Logan and Derek Simmons. All three have been named to the preseason All-CAA team while outfielder Matt Van Horn was an Honorable Mention.
“I am so very proud of these players to be named to the conference preseason team,” commented head coach Greg Frady. “Once again, the coaches of the CAA have shown the respect that they have for our program by voting these fine young gentlemen to the team.”
ROOKIE STANDOUT
Freshman point guard Crystal Johnson has been named the Colonial Athletic Association co-Rookie of the Week for Georgia State’s two wins last week. Johnson led the Panthers to a pair of CAA victories over Northeastern and Delaware with her all-around play. In those games, she dished out 15 assists, grabbed 14 rebounds and scored 13 points. Johnson had a CAA season-high and personal-best 11 assists in the 71-51 win over Northeastern, while adding six rebounds and two steals. She followed that with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds in the win over Delaware. Johnson now leads the CAA in assists for the season with 71 for an average 5.5 per game.
Playing without the injured Danyiell McKellar, the women’s team dropped their game at Drexel last Thursday night, 74-65, getting 17 points and eight rebounds from Chandra Harris in her first start of the season.
“We got frustrated during a stretch in the first half and got ourselves down, but we came back with some energy and got ourselves back into a position to try to win it late,” head coach Lea Henry noted.
MEN FALL ON ROAD
In men’s action, the Panthers lost at Old Dominion 73-56 to fall to 4-13 on the season. Joe Dukes hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer at the end of the first half to bring Georgia State to within 34-32 but the Monarchs opened the second half with a 12-0 run and kept their distance the rest of the way.
“Give credit to Old Dominion because they shot the ball really well tonight,” said head coach Rod Barnes. “In the first half we scored right along with them, but the first five minutes of the second half, we couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t match them.”
Join us every Sunday afternoon (4-5 p.m.) for the Rod Barnes/Georgia State Basketball coaches show on WGKA-AM 920. The show is broadcast live from The Panthers Den restaurant in the Citizens Trust Bank building, 75 Piedmont Road, on campus.
Dave Cohen is in his 26th season as the “Voice of Georgia State Basketball and Baseball” on WRAS-FM (88.5) and works on the football radio crew at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
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