Box Score

Box Score
 
Bulldog Kickoff Classic Information
 
STARKVILLE, Miss. – For the first time this season, the University of South Alabama softball team was first to draw blood and once the Jaguars sank their teeth into Georgia State, the club never let loose en route to an 8-0 victory called after six innings.
 
GSU starter Katie Worley loaded the bases for USA in the opening inning when she walked Stephanie Pilkington and hit both Brittany Fowler and Kaitlyn Griffith. Meghan Collins drew a walk on the subsequent at-bat to send Pilkington across the plate for a 1-0 Jaguar lead.
 
Home runs with scorers on base by Blair Johnson and Collins in the second and fifth innings, respectively, extended the tally by five, and an RBI apiece from Alex Breeden and Clara Bowen finished the contest early.
 
“We were really waiting to see how we’d come out today after we locked in pretty well last night [in a 9-1 victory over Tennessee State], and I thought we did a great job picking right back up,” said USA head coach Becky Clark. “It’s early in the year, but we have to learn that now; learn how to do that day after day. I thought we ran the bases well, too. Some of our speed kids were on, and we were able to do a little bit with them.”
 
The Jaguars improved to 3-1 on the year with Saturday’s victory. USA is scheduled, pending expected weather, to take on Mississippi State on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., two days after the visitors came back from a two-run deficit to defeat the Bulldogs at their home venue.
 
Farish Beard earned her second victory of the season, pitching hitless ball through 5 1/3 innings, allowing no runs and striking out eight Panther batters.
 
GSU’s Worley took her first loss of the season, allowing four Jaguar hits, four earned runs and five bases on balls.
 
Johnson’s homer was the second of her career and of the tournament. She is USA’s current leader in batting average (.417), total bases (12), runs scored (5),hits (5) and walks (4) and has an on-base percentage of .563 through four games. Collins’s knock was good for three runs, bringing her RBI total to four on Saturday night. She now has 78 in her career and is one away from tying Jenny Stevens for fifth-most in program history.
 
Offensively, Fowler went 2-for-3 on the night with a run scored, but her most important contribution came in the fifth inning when the shortstop pulled a double play after GSU tallied two of its three total hits to stack runners on the corners. Fowler gobbled up a grounder from Panther Lauren Coleman and stepped on second in stride before throwing to first for the final out of the inning.
 
In the second frame, Pilkington reached on a GSU fielding error before Johnson homered to make it 3-0. Fowler singled up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Griffith walked and Collins hit her 13^th career home run for a 6-0 Jag lead.
 
Haley Fagan ripped a double to right center after GSU changed pitchers, and Breeden sent her home with a single to the same area.  
 
Beard’s eighth strikeout left two Panther runners on base in the top of the sixth inning before Bowen came on to pinch hit for Griffith. The freshman singled up the middle to score Johnson, who walked earlier.
 
Results from the Jags’ final game at the Bulldog Kickoff Classic on Sunday will be posted to the Jaguar athletics website immediately following each game. Live stats can be found via the link listed above.
 
NOTES:
·        Seven different Jaguars recorded hits against Georgia State
·        Johnson and Pilkington carded two runs apiece on the night
·        Meghan Collins tied her career high with four RBI
·        USA has homered in three of four games this year and won each one of those

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