Box score

LAFAYETTE, La. – The 29th-ranked University of South Alabama baseball team clinched its seventh consecutive Sun Belt Conference series with a 4-3 win over Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

Jaguar right-hander Ben Taylor (6-1) earned his sixth win of the year with 2 2/3 relief innings, allowing one run on one hit with three strikeouts and one walk. ULL right-hander Will Bacon (3-2) allowed two runs on three hits with two strikeouts and a walk in the loss.

USA right-hander Austin Bembnowski tossed six innings and allowed just one run on six hits with five strikeouts and a pair of walks without factoring in the decision.

"I thought Austin Bembnowski was great coming off a rough outing last week," USA head coach Mark Calvi said. "He showed a lot of toughness. I give a lot of credit to him and his teammates behind him. Louisiana-Lafayette dinked and dunked some base hits in there, and Austin just worked right through it. We scored him some runs late, and turned the ball over to Ben Taylor. I'm proud of these guys."

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning when ULL (30-19, 14-11 SBC) pushed across the first run of the contest. Joe Robbins led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to left field, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Trahan. Kyle Clement followed with a one-out RBI single back up the middle to score Robbins for a one-run lead. The Cajuns loaded the bases later in the inning with two outs, but Bembnowski worked out of the jam with an inning-ending strikeout of Nick Thurman to keep the USA deficit at one run.

USA answered with its first run of the contest a half-inning later to tie the game. Ben Gann doubled to the right-center gap with one out, and moved to third on a one-out single to left field by Bud Collura. Adam Ballew followed with an RBI single to right field to score Gann and knot the score 1-1.

"I thought their pitcher (Evan Guillory) did a good job, but I credit our hitters. Our guys did a good job and didn't give in. It's easy when things aren't going your way to give up and give some at-bats away, which I thought we did in the middle innings. We pulled off some balls and I thought we let him get off the hook, but our guys hung in there and put some good at-bats together. We were opportunistic on the bases, and we got some hits when we needed to. I credit our guys for doing a good job with their pitchers, and credit Bembnowski handling Louisiana-Lafayette's offense."

South Alabama (34-17, 19-7 SBC) took its first lead of the game in the top of the seventh inning. Jared Barnes reached on a one-out single to center field, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a pinch-hit single to right field by Danny Martinez. Ryan Raspino followed with a sacrifice fly to right-center field to score Barnes and give the Jags a 2-1 lead.

ULL answered with a run to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. Clement reached on a one-out ground-rule double to right field, and advanced to third on a single to center field by Stefan Trosclair. Tyler Girouard drew a walk from Jaguar left-hander Shane McKinley to load the bases with one out. The Cajuns tied the game one batter later on a suicide squeeze bunt from Greg Davis to score Clement and tie the game 2-2, but USA escaped the inning on the play when Gann fired to Barnes at home to cut down Trosclair for the final out of the frame.

USA responded with two runs in the top of the eighth for a two-run advantage. Collura reached on a one-out single to right field, and moved to second when Ballew reached on catcher's interference. Bolger followed with a single to center field to load the bases with one out. Barnes delivered an RBI infield single down the third-base line to score Collura for a 3-2 advantage. Martinez followed with a bases-loaded walk with two outs from ULL right-hander Will Bacon to plate Ballew and double the USA lead to 4-2.   

ULL put the tying run on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth after a single from Trahan and hit by pitch from Ben Taylor to Clement. Trosclair followed with a walk to load the bases and move the tying run into scoring position and allowing the winning run to reach base. Girouard then lifted a sacrifice fly to right-center field to score Trahan and cut the Jaguar lead to one run. But Taylor induced a flyout to right field off the bat of Davis to end the game.

Barnes went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored to lead USA at the plate. Collura added two hits and a run, and Ballew, Martinez and Gann had one hit and one RBI apiece.

The Jaguars extended their SBC winning streak to nine games, and will be in search of their third straight conference sweep in Sunday's series finale at 1 p.m.

"These kids believe in each other and themselves," Calvi said. "It's a lot of fun; you can see it when it happens. As coaches, when kids believe in themselves, you try not to screw it up. You get out of their way and do what you have to do as far as coaching goes, and let them go out and play. Our guys have done a fantastic job. We have some great senior leadership on this team. These kids are selfless, and they have been a great example for the younger players to watch and see how older guys take ownership of a team.

"I give our entire team and coaching staff so much credit for believing in each other, and I think that is what we're seeing. It didn't just start three weeks ago. This has been one of the toughest, hardest-working and most competitive groups that I have ever been around. They pull for each other and when they're not playing, they just want to win. I'm proud of them this weekend, but we have a tough game tomorrow. We have to go out there on a quick turnaround and do everything we have to do to win the game."

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).