Written by Ace Espenshied

The Valdosta State baseball team is beginning to play some of its best baseball heading into this weekend’s series against rival West Georgia.

After starting Gulf South Conference play 0-5, the Blazers now find themselves at 3-6 in the Conference,    recently winning two out of three against conference leader West Alabama.

Heading into this weekend’s series VSU has won six of its last seven games and it looks like the team is hitting its stride.

“I think we’ve been swinging the bats better and that’s been a struggle for us,” Head Coach Greg Guilliams said. “But its [this weekend’s series] is going to come down to pitching, both teams are going to need their starting pitcher to go deep into the game to give both of us a chance.”

Sophomore Jamie Sexton, the Wolves ace of the pitching staff, is expected to take the mound at Billy Grant Field this coming weekend.

Coming off a game where the Blazers saw 13 runs cross the plate on 15 hits they know runs will be at more of a premium against a pitcher like Sexton.

“Every team has an ace and he’s obviously outstanding. For us we just gotta try to put solid contact on the ball and if we are able to do that we’ll have some chances,” Guilliams said. “A guy like that you aren’t going to get that many chances, the few that we have we’ll have to cash in.”

West Georgia sits at 18-11 on the season and 7-4 in GSC play as this weekend will cap off the home stand for the Blazers before their final road trip of the regular season.

At 14-11 overall VSU has seen 13 of those wins come at home this season. If they are hitting their stride they will need to carry it into this weekend and beyond on the road to prepare for the postseason.

“I don’t think any series is any more important or any less important,” Guilliams said. “But for us we are just gonna come out, hopefully play hard, and give ourselves a chance to have some success.”

It may not be any more important, but this is definitely a big series for the Blazers if they want to set themselves up and position themselves better for the postseason.

The double header will begin at 3 p.m. Friday and the series wraps up Saturday at 1 p.m.