USA vs. WKU 3 box score

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After clinching the Sun Belt Conference series against Western Kentucky on Saturday, the University of South Alabama softball team was edged 5-4 by the Hilltoppers on Sunday afternoon at the WKU Softball Complex.

“We had some opportunities early that we didn’t capitalize on,” said USA head coach Becky Clark. “Any time you’ve taken two on the first day, you want to come out in game three and jump on them early. You can’t let them get anything going. We had our chances to do that early, but we didn’t capitalize on them.

“Our kids fought extremely hard. There were a lot of obstacles that we had to overcome in that game and we still had a chance to tie it up there at the end. We just ran out of time. Overall, it was a great fight from our kids. They went all the way down to the end trying to win that ball game.”  

USA rallied in the seventh inning scoring three runs off of five hits, but could not hold on falling to 17-7 overall and 5-1 in the Sun Belt. The Lady Toppers are now 19-10 and 4-2 in the SBC.

WKU’s Mallorie Sulaski evened her record to 1-1 after pitching a 6.1 innings for the Hilltoppers. Kim Wagner came in to toss the last two-thirds of the seventh inning for the Lady Toppers giving up three hits and a run.

South Alabama sophomore Hannah Campbell (9-6) gave up five runs in three innings of work earning the loss. Freshman Farish Beard (1-0) tossed three innings of scoreless relief bringing her ERA to 0.95.

Western Kentucky outhit South Alabama 11-7 in the contest. Two of USA’s hits came off the bat of junior Britany Campbell after three at-bats. Junior Brittany Fowler went 1-for-3 with three RBI on the day.

Western Kentucky jumped on the board first in the bottom of the third after three hits by Kelsie Mattox, Preslie Cruce and Katrina Metoyer pushed a run across to give the Hilltoppers the 1-0 advantage in the bottom of the fifth. Four more consecutive hits would lead to four more runs in the inning.

In the top of the fifth, B. Campbell recorded South Alabama’s first hit of the game before Linn hit a single up the right side putting B. Campbell in scoring position. B. Campbell scored when Fowler grounded out to the second baseman Olivia Watkins.

The Jaguars mounted a comeback in the seventh inning after B. Campbell led off with a single. Linn followed reaching on a fielder’s choice while B. Campbell was called out at second base. Freshman Blair Johnson then hit a shot down the left line advancing Linn to second. With runners on first and second, Fowler hit a double to left center plating Linn and Johnson. Junior Meghan Collins grounded out to first for the second out of the inning allowing Fowler to reach third. A single by senior Christin Crocker would push Fowler across home. Sophomore Julie Moss added the final hit of the game with a single to left field, but a ground out to the short stop by sophomore Haley Richards ended the game.

South Alabama returns home March 21-22 for a pair of mid-week games against Southern Miss and Tulsa at 6 p.m. at Jaguar Field.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).