USA 11, UNO 3
The University of South Alabama’s baseball team opened its final Sun Belt Conference home series Friday night with an 11-3 win over new Orleans. Jag starter P.J. Walters allowed only five hits in eight stellar innings and got plenty of help from his offense to record his eighth win of the season.
USA got the scoring started early off of UNO left-hander Ryan Meyer, jumping up 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning. Tyler Jones got it going with a textbook bunt down the right side. David Freese stepped up next and knocked his sixth home run of the year to get the Jags on the board. Josh Morgan reached on a fielding error by third baseman T.J. Baxter and later scored on a Quendon Montgomery line drive up the middle to tack on another run. new Orleans batted around in the top of the third and matched USA’s three runs to tie the score, 3-3. Joel Collins scored on a Ben Froemming single in the bottom of the third to give the Jags the lead for good. Morgan slapped a three-run homer, his 10th of the season, in the fifth inning to increase the lead to 7-3. the Jags blew it open with three runs in the sixth and one run in the seventh. Collins led the late-inning charge with two RBIs. South Alabama’s offense scattered 15 hits in the game while Walters struck out 12 Privateers before giving way to Joey Doan for mop-up duty.
Jag coach Steve Kittrell thought that the end of final exams may have had an influence on his team’s outstanding performance. “The guys looked glad that exams were over,” said Kittrell. “I thought P.J. threw outstanding and our hitters really swung the bats well. We had a lot of clutch hits with two outs. this was a big win for us tonight, but we’ve got some more work to do this weekend to try to move up in the conference race.”
The Jags are chasing conference leader Louisiana-Lafayette in an attempt to win their fifth straight Sun Belt title. South Alabama improved to 29-19 overall and 13-6 in league play while new Orleans fell to 13-32 overall and 8-11 in the conference.
UNO 11. USA 3
The Jag baseball team was involved in another 11-3 game on Saturday evening, only this time they were on the losing end. South Alabama dropped the second game of the series against new Orleans on Saturday after an 11-3 win on Friday night in game one.
The Jags struck first in the fourth inning. Josh Stapleton reached base on a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a hard-hit double to left-center by Quendon Montgomery, and scored on a wild pitch by UNO starter Bryan Cryer to go up 1-0. Montgomery moved over to third on the wild pitch only to get caught in a rundown after a strong pickoff move by Cryer. the Privateers first got to USA starter Jeramy Simmons in the fifth inning. Simmons gave up a single to Nate Murray and then walked Jason Schwab. Mike Epping stepped up next and belted a three-run home run over the right field wall to give UNO the lead, 3-1. the two teams would trade runs in the sixth to make it 4-2. things unraveled for the Jags in the eighth as the Privateers got four runs off of Chase Christianson and three runs off of Justin Rayborn to go up 11-2. UNO got seven hits in the inning, including a three-run homer by “King Koopa” Brandon Bowser. USA had no rally in them and added only one more run in the ninth on a T.J. Baxter error to end the scoring at 11-3. UNO’s Cryer, only a freshman, picked up the win to improve to 4-4 on the year, while Grant Birely notched his first save of the season. Simmons took the loss for USA to fall to 3-4. the Jags were without third baseman David Freese after he was hit by a pitch in the first inning and had to leave the game. Freese went into the locker room for precautionary X-rays on a bruised left hand. X-rays were negative and he joined his teammates later in the game with a bandage on his hand. He may be able to return to action on Tuesday against Troy. Freese leads the team with 44 RBIs so the Jags hope to get his bat back in the lineup soon.
“We just didn’t play well today,” said 22-year head coach Steve Kittrell. “We played so well last night and I thought we were going to turn it on and then this happens. Simmons threw the ball well but we didn’t pitch well after that. they swung the bats and we didn’t. We just have to regroup and play a lot better here down the homestretch. this is a disappointing loss but we’ve got to try to win the series here tomorrow.”
South Alabama fell to 29-20 overall and 13-7 in the Sun Belt Conference while new Orleans moved to 14-32 overall and 9-11 in league play.
USA 8, UNO 7
Michael Cart had a walk-off homerun in the 10th inning to win a nail-biter for the South Alabama baseball team over new Orleans, 8-7, in a Mother’s Day matchup on Sunday at Stanky Field. Cart’s heroics gave USA a win in the series and kept them on the heels of Sun Belt Conference leader Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Jags wasted no time getting started, scoring two runs in the first inning on a Quendon Montgomery home run over the left field wall. USA starter Tommie Major got into trouble in the second inning when he gave up a leadoff single to Paul Smyth and then walked T.J. Baxter and Mike Costantino to load the bases. Nate Murray’s single drove in Smyth and Baxter to tie the score, 2-2. In the third, Josh Morgan drilled his team-leading 11th home run of the season over the center field wall to take the lead for the Jags, 3-2. USA’s Josh Stapleton walked to lead off the bottom of the fourth and then made it all the way home on T.J. Baxter’s throwing error. Baxter’s third error of the series turned a routine ground ball into three bases for Joel Collins. Collins later scored on a Ben Froemming single to put the Jags up 5-2. Montgomery stepped up in the bottom of the fifth for the Jags and belted a solo shot into right-center, his second round-tripper of the game and the season. USA appeared to have the game under control until Alex Webster crushed a 3-run home run over the scoreboard in left to pull the Privateers within one in the eighth.
Jags take two of three from UNO
