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TROY, Ala. – Jaguar right-hander Austin Bembnowski struck out a career-best seven batters in a career-high 8 1/3 innings to lead the top-seeded University of South Alabama baseball team to a 7-3 win over No. 8 Arkansas State Saturday at Riddle-Pace Field to advance to Sunday's SBC Tournament championship game.

Bembnowski (3-3) allowed three runs on six hits and issued six walks to go with his seven strikeouts to earn his third win of the season.

"I knew I had my fastball early (in the game)," Bembnowski said. "I didn't throw much offspeed early on, but I was able to get good leverage on the fastball. That's what really kept me in the game. As long as I threw it for a strike, I knew my defense would be behind me and they had my back today."

"Austin went out there and gave us a fantastic effort today," head coach Mark Calvi said. "It's as good as he has thrown all year long when we needed it the most. I thought he was great. We didn't get a lot of hits today, but we got them when it mattered. Some guys came up big with two outs. We scored five of our seven runs with two outs, and that was the story of the ballgame. We were opportunistic on offense, and that's kind of how we have played all year. But it was a great effort by our guys today. Our whole group had great energy in the dugout; it was a lot of fun to be a part of today."

South Alabama (37-19) spotted Bembnowski a one-run lead before he threw his first pitch of the day. Cole Billingsley drew a walk from ASU starter Adam Grantham to lead off the game, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ben Gann before stealing third with one out. Bud Collura then delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to score Billingsley with the game's first run in the top of the first inning.

USA added its second run of the game in the top of the fourth. Adam Ballew reached on a leadoff walk from ASU right-hander Cody Jackson, and Danny Martinez followed with a single through the left side of the infield. Matt Bolger drew a one-out walk later in the inning to load the bases. Jared Barnes then reached on an RBI fielder's choice to shortstop to plate Ballew and double the Jaguar lead.

The Jags added to their advantage one inning later. Gann doubled off the center-field wall with one out in the top of the fifth, and advanced to third on a groundout to first from Collura. Ballew then reached on a two-out infield single to first to score Gann and push the Jaguar lead to 3-0.

With a three-run cushion after four innings, the Jags rallied for four runs with two outs in the top of the seventh. Ballew doubled off the right-field wall, and scored one batter later on an RBI double by Martinez off the right-field wall to extend the USA lead to 4-0. Cole Gleason followed with a walk before Bolger delivered a two-out, two-run double to left-center field to score Martinez and Gleason for a 6-0 Jaguar lead. Barnes then reached on an RBI infield single to third to plate Bolger with the final USA run of the game.

ASU (27-30) pushed its first run of the game across on a wild pitch from Bembnowski in the bottom of the seventh inning, and added its final runs of the contest on a two-out, two-run double to right field by Zach George in the bottom of the ninth.

Grantham (0-3) allowed one run on one hit with a pair of walks in 1 1/3 innings in the loss.

Six Jaguar batters hit safely in the game, led by Ballew who went 3-for-4 – tying a season high in hits – with a double, one RBI and two runs scored. Martinez finished 2-for-5 with a double, one RBI and a run scored.

USA will play the winner of No. 3 Louisiana-Lafayette and No. 6 Texas State, who will square off in an elimination game Saturday evening, at 1 p.m. Sunday which will be streamed live on ESPN3.

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).