VALDOSTA - Georgia Southwestern starting pitcher Matt Weaver accounted for nine of the team's 12 strikeouts on Wednesday evening against Valdosta State, worked out of a jam in the first, and held the Blazers to three hits over the following five innings to help secure a 7-3 victory.

Valdosta State (16-20) wasted little time in opening the scoring as its first three batters reached via a pair of singles and a walk. Two batters later, Christian Glisson singled to right to plate Chaz Bagwell. Georgia Southwestern starting pitcher Matt Weaver rebounded with a strikeout and a fielder's choice to hold VSU to a 1-0 advantage.

GSW (23-16) responded with three runs in the top of the second inning. A walk and a double put two runners into scoring position before Andrew Anderson it a sharp grounder to short that was misplayed by Aaron Kicklighter. Both runners, which had retreated back to their bases, scored on the play as the ball bounced into left-centerfield. Anderson stole second and moved to third on a groundout while Beau Parker doubled to left to give GSW a 3-1 advantage.

The Hurricanes added a run in the top of the third inning when Jared Allen scored from third on a wild pitch. VSU got a doubles from Ryan Noelte and Joel Cardinal in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 4-2.

A Michel Coffey RBI single in the fifth pushed the GSW advantage back to three runs while Paschel Poston plated a run with a ground out and Beau Parker hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to give the Georgia Southwestern a 7-2 advantage.

Valdosta State got a run back in the bottom of the sixth inning as Christian Glisson led off with his sixth home run of the year

After the shaky start, Weaver settled down and allowed just six hits and three runs while striking out nine in six innings of work to improve to 1-0. Stephen Daneman and Grey Carden combined to keep VSU scoreless over the final three frames, striking out three in the process. Cameron Martin fell to 0-1 for VSU as he surrendered three runs, two earned, on one hit in an inning and a third. The Blazers brought six pitchers to the hill in the contest.

Coffey and Parker recorded two hits each to lead GSW, which finished with seven hits in the game. Meanwhile, Glisson collected three hits to lead Valdosta State offensively on the day as the Blazers recorded eight in the game. 

The Hurricanes return to action on Friday when they travel to Columbus State and open a weekend Peach Belt Conference series at 6 p.m.