Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

MONROE, La. – No. 20/21 University of South Alabama softball outscored Louisiana at Monroe, 25-1, on Saturday in a Sun Belt Conference doubleheader sweep at Warhawk Softball Complex.
 
The Jaguars (39-7, 15-3 SBC) combined for 21 hits on the day, including six home runs, to take down ULM by scores of 11-1 and 14-0 and clinch their sixth league series of the year. Game three is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, with USA seeking its third three-game conference sweep.
 
Haley Fagan led USA at the plate on Saturday, going 6-for-7 with two home runs, four runs scored and five RBI, slugging 1.714-percent and recording an on-base percentage of .857. The freshman extended her team-leading RBI total to 43 and now leads in home runs.
 
Brittany Fowler tied her career high in reached-base streak in game two, now having touched at least first in 23 consecutive games, a feat she last accomplished as a sophomore in 2011. She went 4-for-5 on the day, with two RBI, four runs scored and an on-base percentage of .875.
 
Kaitlyn Griffith batted in four runs on the day and scored two of her own, one off a home run she hit in game two, her eighth of the year, tied for second with Fowler. Alex Breeden also recorded four RBI, scoring one of her own when she hit a grand slam as part of a six-run sixth frame in the first outing. Britany Campbell drove in three runs off a homer she hit in the second game.
 
Julie Moss hit her seventh homer of the year in game two, a two-run shot that opened the visitors’ scoreline. Blair Johnson scored two runs off two hits and also drove two runs in, extending her hit streak to 12 games on Saturday.
 
Hannah Campbell and Farish Beard each earned their 18^th wins on Saturday, the former striking out four against three hits and no walks and allowing only one run (earned) to move to 18-7, while the latter pitched three shutout innings in the second leg, striking five out against only one hit and a walk to set up Kaleigh Floore, who struck out one and disallowed any ULM production in the final two innings.
 
USA remains a game ahead of Western Kentucky at the top of SBC standings. With 15 wins to the Lady ‘Toppers’ 14, the Jags are a half-game ahead after WKU took two from Troy on Saturday. The Jaguars, looking for their first regular season league title in program history, are winners of 10 straight since dropping two of three to Western Kentucky in Mobile on March 29-30.
 
Game One - USA 11, ULM 1 (6 inn.)
USA started quickly in game one, going up a run in the opening half-inning when Fowler scored from third base on Fagan’s RBI sacrifice bunt, but the hosts responded by immediately bagging a run of their own in the bottom half of the first, delivered by Alexis Cacioppo’s RBI triple that scored Mackenzie Miller, who was hit by a pitch, to knot the score at 1-1.
 
The Jaguars doubled their total in the top of the second, Collins running home on a Fowler RBI single that scored her from second, after she drew a walk and advanced on a Stephanie Pilkington base on balls.
 
The teams left a combined five runners stranded in the third and fourth frames, but neither could produce runs until USA exploded for nine runs in the fifth and sixth, prompting the mercy rule.
 
Alyssa Linn, pinch-running for Fagan , who singled, and Griffith, who was hit by a pitch, both scored on a Collins double to left center to make it 4-1 Jags. Collins then rounded home when a throwing error by ULM’s second baseman allowed Pilkington to reach.
 
USA tacked on six runs in the top of the sixth after H. Campbell retired the hosts in order in the bottom of the fifth, beginning with Fagan’s bases-loaded single through the left side that scored Fowler from third. Griffith followed with her team-leading fourth sacrifice fly of the year to score Johnson. Collins then drew another walk to load the bags for Breeden, who lifted a grand slam to left center, extending the visitor run total to 11.
 
ULM left two on in the bottom of the sixth, but could not close the gap, as the Warhawks became USA’s 12^th run-rule victim of the season. Stephanie Routzon took the loss for ULM in the circle, dropping to 10-11 on the year after giving up 11 runs, 10 earned, on nine hits. The Warhawks managed only three hits in the game.
 
Game Two - USA 14, ULM 0 (5 inn.)
Typically dominant in a series game two, USA did not disappoint the handful of USA fans that made the trek west for the weekend set in the follow-up contest, as the Jaguars outhit ULM, 12-1, en route to accumulating its largest run total of the year and enacting the run-rule yet again to record their 13^th mercy-rule win.
 
South Alabama completed the nightcap much more deliberately, scoring in four of the game’s five innings and posting at least three runs in each.
 
Moss and Fagan delivered back-to-back homers in the initial frame, the first of which scored Fowler, who led the contest off with a single, for a quick 3-0 USA advantage. Beard shook off a throwing error and a hit batter to retire ULM in the home half, and the Jaguars soothed her discomfort with a five-spot in the second frame.
 
Clara Bowen, making her 10^th start at catcher for the Jags, drew a walk to lead off, and Alyssa Linn, making her first start since the series versus ULL in mid-March, each were put into scoring position on a B. Campbell sacrifice bunt to start off the frame. Fowler then singled to score the former, and Johnson doubled to score two more before Fagan homered for the second time in the bout to make it 8-0 USA after one-and-a-half complete.
 
After allowing Faith Bohack a leadoff walk in the bottom half of the second, Beard dealt three consecutive strikeouts. With their bats still sizzling, the Jaguars put up three runs apiece in the third and fourth innings to put the game out of reach.
 
B. Campbell’s homer scored all three in the third, and Griffith’s did the same in the fourth, before Floore entered the Jaguar circle and stuffed the Warhawks, retiring six consecutive ULM batters to close the game out.

ULM starter Haylie Wilson gave up eight runs, six earned, and was tagged with the loss, falling to 7-14 on the year. Routzon was called upon again, but she fared no better, giving up six USA scores, all earned. 
 
NOTES:
USA is now 13-1 overall in away games and 8-0 in away conference games…USA has now clinched five consecutive series against ULM…South Alabama is now 17-5 all-time versus the Warhawks…The Jags hit .404, slugged .827 and had an on-base percentage of .500 on Saturday…USA’s 14 RBI in game two are a season high…Fagan’s two homers in game two ties the program’s single-game high…Her nine total bases in the contest tied for third all-time…Collins drew three walks in game one, tying for the most in a single game in USA history…The team’s 14 runs in game two are the fifth most scored by a Jag team in school history…The five homers tie for second-most and the 14 RBI are fourth-most in a single game all-time…Johnson moved into the top-10 all-time in hits, as she now has 104 in her career…Moss and Griffith moved into the top 10 all-time in homers…Griffith is also now tied for fourth all-time in hit by pitch…Moss moved to ninth all-time in RBI with 59 in her career…Collins earned fourth place outright in total bases (238 career)…Fagan is now seventh all-time in putouts with 104…Beard earned her 25^th career win and is now three strikeouts away from the third-most in program history (232).
 
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).