Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – The No. 25 University of South Alabama softball team will host UAB in a midweek matchup scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Jaguar Field on Wednesday.
 
South Alabama is coming off a Sun Belt Conference-opening series win over then-No. 22/25 Louisiana at Lafayette in Mobile last weekend. USA defeated the Ragin’ Cajuns twice on Saturday, stringing together five homers and 15 total runs to bring down the reigning regular-season champions, 7-3 and 8-4.
 
With the wins, the Jaguars were ranked 25th in this week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25 Collegiate Poll, marking the first ranking for the program in its seven-year history.
 
South Alabama is 23-5 on the year, 8-1 at home and 2-1 in the league and will return to conference play this weekend, visiting FIU on March 23-24 for a three-game set in Miami. The Panthers are 4-1 on the year after splitting with North Texas and registering two series-clinching wins over Middle Tennessee.
 
At the Plate
USA senior Brittany Fowler went 6-for-8 last weekend with three home runs against ULL en route to being named SBC Player of the Week.
 
The weekly SBC honor marked the first for Fowler since Feb. 28, 2011, her sophomore season, and the third honor for a USA student-athlete this season, after Farish Beard and Julie Moss were selected in the first two weeks of the 2013 campaign.
 
In game one, Fowler ripped a grand slam to give USA a 4-1 lead after the Jags went down in the third inning. In the bottom of the first in game two, Fowler hit a two-run shot to give USA a lead and her solo shot in the sixth inning spurred three more USA runs as the hosts pulled away.
 
Fowler now leads the Jaguars at the plate with a .375 batting average. Her efforts this weekend positioned her amongst the league’s top five in runs scored (25), home runs (6), slugging percentage (.708) and on-base percentage (.511).
 
Freshman Haley Fagan went yard twice on Saturday for a total of five Saturday homers that added to the 15 total USA runs on the day. Kaitlyn Griffith gave USA a brief lead on Sunday with a solo shot, her third of the year.
 
The Jags outhit the league’s offensive leaders 24-19 in the series, batting .289 to the visitors’ .238. USA slugged .506 as a club and claimed 42 total bases to ULL’s 27.
 
USA remains behind ULL in conference team batting at second, hitting .289 as a club, shy of the Ragin’ Cajuns, who own a .314 clip. The Mobilians also reign amongst the league’s top three in on-base percentage (.384), runs scored (152), RBIs (122), triples (8), total bases (312), sacrifice bunts (25) and sacrifice flies (11).
 
Julie Moss leads the conference in sacrifice hits with eight. Fowler has been hit more pitches than anyone in the league (12), and Britany Campbell, who should be noted with a Web Gem catch on Sunday for robbing ULL’s Brianna Cherry of a two-run homer over the center field wall, leads in triples with three.
 
In the Circle
Hannah Campbell went 1-1 on the weekend in two complete games with seven strikeouts and four earned runs, bringing her season ERA to 1.07, conference-leading and 11^th in the NCAA. Farish Beard struck out three in the second game on Saturday, allowing four hits and four earned runs to extend her season record to 10 wins and no losses.
 
The duo leads the league in earned-run average, as USA’s team ERA of 1.53 leads Sun Belt teams by over half a point. The Jaguar pitching staff has thrown nine total shutouts in 28 games and has held its opponents to a .175 batting average and only 40 earned runs.
 
H. Campbell’s three saves rank her seventh in the NCAA. Beard’s 3.55 hits allowed per seven innings ranks 13^th in the NCAA.
 
Beard has held batters to a 1.50 average and has allowed the fewest runs of any pitcher in the league: Fifteen in 71 innings. She has struck out 93 batters, giving up only 20 walks.
 
In the Field
USA also leads the conference in the fielding category, sporting a .981 percentage, as the Jags have committed only 15 errors in 549 total putouts. The percentage is also sixth-best in the NCAA.
 
Jag first baseman Meghan Collins has been perfect on the corner this year, recording 197 putouts with no errors and fielding as part of seven USA double plays this year. Third baseman Haley Fagan has been a slapper’s nightmare on the hot corner, gunning 74 batters this year, second-best in the league.
 
USA 8, UAB 2 – March 2, 2013
On March 2, USA defeated the Blazers, 8-2, in Birmingham at the Magic City Classic. The Jaguars took advantage of four UAB errors in the contest, which led to all USA scores. South Alabama outhit the Blazers, 7-3 in the game.
 
Beard struck out five of UAB’s first six batters before the Jags posted a four-hit, five-run second inning, which Moss and Fagan initiated with back-to-back singles. Griffith reached on the first of three Blazer miscues in the frame to load the bases with no outs, and B. Campbell ripped an RBI single at UAB’s shortstop, whose errant throw allowed Moss to score from third.
 
Messer pinch hit for Pilkington and reached on a fielder’s choice, with Griffith and Fagan scoring on a throwing error by the second baseman. Fowler singled to the shortstop to score both Messer and B. Campbell to make it 5-0 after two innings.
 
The visitors poured on three more runs a frame later. UAB starter Lannah Campbell, twin sister of USA’s Hannah, was replaced by Leigh Streetman after walking Fagan and allowing her to advance on a wild pitch. Streetman walked Griffith before Breeden took a fat pitch deep that the UAB right fielder couldn’t corral. The defender then botched a throw home that allowed Fagan to cross the plate with ease.
 
B. Campbell drew a walk to join Griffith and Breeden on the bags, and Johnson followed suit to plate Griffith. Fowler was hit by a pitch to send the carousel around one more time to give the jags an 8-0 advantage.
 
UAB’s Anna Kimbrell hit her team-leading sixth homer of the year to lead off the fifth frame, breaking up Beard’s no-no and saving the Blazers from being USA’s seventh run-rule victim this year. UAB added its final run in the top of the seventh pinch-hitter Kelly Britt delivered an RBI single that scored Haile Glynn, who pinch ran for Kimbrell who was hit by a pitch.
 
The win over the Blazers marked the program’s 200^th win, all under head coach Becky Clark.
 
Last Time Out for UAB
The Blazer softball team will take a quick break from the Conference USA schedule to play a trio of games on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The Blazers will first travel to Montgomery, Ala., to play two games at Alabama State, in a doubleheader that was originally scheduled for Feb. 22.
 
First pitch is set for 1 p.m. CT at the Barbara Williams Softball Complex, then UAB will travel to Mobile to face the Jaguars for a second time this year.
 
In the first meeting between the teams, USA came out victorious, drubbing the Blazers, 8-2, at UAB Softball Complex as part of the Magic City Classic in early March.
 
In UAB’s first home conference series of the season, the Blazers split the opening doubleheader with East Carolina before taking Sunday’s rubber match. The Blazers fell behind by four runs in the opening game against the Pirates, and ultimately lost, 4-2.
 
In game two, the UAB batters came out swinging with a five-run first inning that featured junior designated hitter Kristen McGrath’s seventh home run of the year. After scoring two more runs in the bottom of the second frame, UAB held on to win, 7-4.
 
Junior pitcher Lannah Campbell was credited with her fourth save of the year as she entered the game in the seventh inning and got the team out of a bases-loaded jam with a pair of strikeouts before creating a line-out situation to third base.
 
On Sunday, in a game televised by Fox Sports Net, senior third baseman Kate Armstrong hit her second home run of the year as the Blazers held on to win, 2-0. In the circle, Campbell pitched a complete game and struck out nine batters, which matched her career high.
 
UAB held East Carolina to a .177 batting average for the weekend, and out-hit the Pirates 27-14. Armstrong led the Blazers on the weekend with a batting average of .667, two runs on six hits, a home run, two RBI and a slugging percentage of 1.111.
 
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).