Game 1 Box Score (PDF)
Game 2 Box Score (PDF)

BOONE, N.C. – The University of South Alabama baseball team swept a Saturday doubleheader against Appalachian State at Smith Stadium to clinch the three-game series.

USA (33-18, 19-7 SBC) took the first game of Saturday's twinbill 8-6, followed by a 24-5 win in game two. The Jaguars will go for the series sweep in Sunday's series finale, which is scheduled for a 10 a.m. (CT) first pitch.

"I thought Randy (Bell) was really good," USA head coach Mark Calvi said. "They got to him a little bit there late surprisingly. It's not like they had shown signs of getting to him. It was just that one inning there in the seventh. When you have a doubleheader and you know you have to play 18 innings, you need your starters to go out and get 12 to 13 innings. I thought Randy and (Tyler) Carr did a really nice job today. Randy made some really good pitches. He made a couple of mistakes and they made him pay, but all in all it was a good day for us. I thought Matt Peacock was good. We didn't have to go to the bullpen much in a long day with a game tomorrow. Matt got hit a little bit, but that's going to happen. He hung in there and did enough, and we scored enough runs.

"Obviously in the second game I was proud of Tyler Carr's effort, and Tyler Perez coming afterwards. The offensive effort top to bottom from the whole team today – we just had great at-bats. You look at all the offensive numbers and the top 10 (nationally) in walks and on-base percentage, and we did it again today. App State has some of the better arms in this league, and we knew we couldn't give at-bats away. I thought our kids fought like crazy up and down the lineup and got some good pitches to hit. We took some walks and didn't have a lot of strikeouts. Our guys just hung in there, battled and wore their pitchers down today and I thought that was the story. We played good defense, our pitchers pitched really well and we had really good at-bats. We had a lot of guys with big offensive days today, but we got some big hits when the game was close and that's the difference between a real guy and a guy who is a poseur. We have some guys come up and get some hits when it matters, and we have a bunch of them up and down the lineup and we'll need it. We're facing another good guy tomorrow, and they (App State) still have a reliever down there in (Matt) Brill who has been up to 96 (mph), so we need to have a bunch of good at-bats and pitch and play very solid defense again tomorrow."

Game 1 - South Alabama 8, Appalachian State 6 
The Jaguars pounded out 17 hits in the series opener, led by Wells Davis who went 3-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI and three runs scored. Jared Barnes finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, one RBI and one run scored, and Drew LaBounty added three hits, including a double, with two RBI and one run scored.

USA broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third on a one-out RBI double to left-center field by Drew LaBounty that scored Dylan Hardy, who reached on a fielder's choice earlier in the inning, for a 1-0 lead. Brendan Donovan followed with an RBI double down the left field line to score LaBounty and double the Jaguar lead at 2-0.

The Jaguars added two runs to their advantage in the top of the fourth inning. Wells Davis singled through the right side of the infield with one out, and Jared Barnes followed with a double to the left-center field gap to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Will Luft drew a walk to load the bases with one out for Hardy, who reached on an RBI fielder's choice that plated Davis and extended the USA lead to 3-0. LaBounty followed with a two-out RBI single to left field that scored Luft and pushed the Jaguar lead to 4-0.

Davis extended the South Alabama lead to 5-0 with a leadoff solo home run, his seventh of the year, in the top of the sixth inning on a 1-1 pitch from Mountaineer left-hander Colin Schmid.

Appalachian State answered with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. The Mountaineers pushed their first run of the game across on a one-out RBI single through the left side of the infield by Avery Jackson to cut the Jaguar lead to 5-1. Calev Grubbs followed with an RBI single to right field to cut the Mountaineer deficit to three runs. Jason Curtis reached on an RBI fielder's choice on grounder to second with the bases loaded to score Jackson and cut the USA advantage to 5-3. Matt Vernon followed with a two-out RBI single through the left side of the infield that plated Grubbs and cut the Jaguar lead to 5-4. Tyler Stroup then delivered an RBI double to left-center field to score Curtis and tie the game at 5-5.

South Alabama responded in the top of the eighth on a two-run home run to center field by Davis, his second of the contest and eighth of the season, to take a 7-5 lead. Barnes followed with a solo home run to left field, his 11th of the season, for an 8-5 Jaguar advantage.

The Mountaineers added the game's final run on a one-out RBI single through the right side of the infield by Stroup.

USA right-hander Matt Peacock (3-2) allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 relief innings to earn the win. App State right-hander Reed Howell (1-2) allowed two runs on four hits with one walk in one relief inning in the loss.

Game 2 – South Alabama 24, Appalachian State 5
Right-hander Tyler Carr set a new career high in strikeouts, and the Jaguars set a season high in hits in a 24-5 series-clinching win in game two.

Carr (5-1) allowed two runs on five hits while striking out a career-high of 11, bettering his previous high of 10 which came at Georgia Southern, against two walks in six innings pitched to earn his fifth win of the season. Right-hander Tyler Perez allowed two earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and one walk in three innings pitched to record his first career save. Luke Watts (2-7) allowed 11 runs on 13 hits with two strikeouts and two walks in four innings in the loss.

USA (33-18, 19-7 SBC) jumped out to a one-run lead in the top of the first inning. Hardy doubled off the left-center field wall to lead off the game, and advanced to third on a groundout to shortstop off the bat of Colton Thomas. Donovan followed with a walk before Swaggerty reached on an RBI infield single to shortstop that scored Hardy for a 1-0 Jaguar lead. Donovan doubled the lead at 2-0 when he scored on a wild pitch one batter later. 

The Mountaineers answered with a run in the bottom of the second on a one-out RBI single to center field by Connor Leonard to cut the Jaguar lead in half at 2-1.

The Jags responded with five runs in the top of the third to take a six-run lead. A one-out RBI single by Davis scored Donovan, who reached on a single earlier in the inning, for a 3-1 advantage. LaBounty followed with an RBI single to right field to plate Davis and push the USA lead to 4-1. Barnes then delivered a three-run home run to left field to extend the Jaguar advantage to 7-1.

South Alabama added four runs to its lead in the top of the fourth. Thomas singled to right field to lead off the top of the fourth, and moved to second on a walk by Donovan. Davis delivered a one-out RBI single through the right side of the infield later in the inning to score Thomas for an 8-1 USA lead. LaBounty delivered a two-out RBI single to left field that scored Swaggerty and extended Jaguar advantage to 9-1. Barnes followed with an RBI double to left field to score Davis for a 10-1 lead. LaBounty scored on a wild pitch one batter later to extend the lead to 11-1.

The Jags loaded the bases in the top of the fifth on consecutive singles by Hardy and Thomas, and a one-out walk by Swaggerty. Davis followed with a grand slam to left field to push the USA lead to 15-1. Hunter Stokes then delivered a pinch-hit triple off the right field wall, and LaBounty reached on a walk. Luft then singled to center field to score Stokes for a 16-1 lead. Hardy followed with a walk to load the bases for Thomas, who drew a walk to plate LaBounty for a 17-1 advantage. Donovan then cleared the bases with a three-run double down the right field line for a 20-1 Jaguar lead. Swaggerty followed with an RBI double off the right-center field wall to score Donovan for a 21-1 lead. 

A pair of sacrifice flies by Barnes and Hardy to extend the Jaguar lead to 23-1 in the top of the sixth. But the Mountaineers responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Stroup to cut the USA lead to 23-2.

South Alabama added its final run of the game in the top of the eighth on an RBI groundout to second by LaBounty that scored Stokes, who led off the inning with a triple, for a 24-2 advantage. 

App State (19-31, 8-18 SBC) added two runs on a two-run single back up the middle of the infield by Leonard in the bottom of the eighth inning, and scored the game's final run on a two-out solo home run to left field by Vernon. 

Barnes went 3-for-5 with a double, one home run, a career-high five RBI and one RBI to lead the Jaguars at the plate, and Luft finished with a career-high four hits, one RBI and one run scored. Davis added three hits, including a home run, a career-high six RBI and three runs.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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