MOBILE, Ala. – After being on the road for most of the first month of the season including its last 10, the University of South Alabama returns home this weekend to open Sun Belt Conference play when the Jags host UT Arlington.  The three-game series is scheduled to open up with a doubleheader on Saturday (1/3 p.m.) and then conclude with a single game Sunday slated to start at 12 p.m. at Jaguar Field.

Series Game Notes (PDF)

GAMES: 23-25 | VS. UTA
Venue: Jaguar Field | Mobile, Ala.

SERIES SCHEDULE
Game 1: Sat., Mar. 10 | 1 p.m.
Game 2: Sat., Mar. 10 | 3 p.m.
Game 3: Sun., Mar. 11 | 12 p.m.

South Alabama JAGUARS
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | RPI: --
Record: 11-11, 0-0 SBC
Head Coach: Becky Clark (Mobile, '95)
Team Slash Line (AVG / OBP / SLG) – .234 / .281 / .327 -
Runs Per Game: 3.0
Runs Per Game Allowed: 3.5

UTA MAVERICKS
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | RPI: --
Record: 9-9, 0-0 SBC
Head Coach: Peejay Brun (Hawai'i '94)
Team Slash Line (AVG / SLG / OBP) – .264 / .343 / .334
Runs Per Game: 3.6
Runs Per Game Allowed: 3.8

SCOUTING THE JAGUARS    
– South Alabama (11-11, 0-0 SBC) comes into the Sun Belt opening weekend after earning a 10-4 road with at Southern Mississippi on Wednesday night.
– Kaleigh Todd and Kristian Foster each tied a career high with four hits in the contest as South tied a season high in runs and a new season best in hits with 14.  Todd and MC Nichols also scored three runs each, while Foster drove in three.
– Brittani Reid continued her hot streak as she recorded her seventh multi-hit game of the season with her two hits.  
– Over the last week, B. Reid has raised her average to .351 – which is just outside the top 10 of the Sun Belt – and in those seven outings, she has recorded four multi-hit games, hit .444 and five of her 12 hits have gone for extra bases.  B. Reid also has 33 total bases on the year which is tied for seventh in the Sun Belt.
– B. Reid also has seven extra-base hits which include three doubles, two triples and two home runs.  Her .579 slugging percentage ranks sixth in the SBC.
– Savanna Mayo ranks second on the club with a .273 average, and she is followed by Todd (.258), Nichols (.256) and Foster (.254).
– Todd also now ranks 10th in the conference in steals with six after her two stolen bases against Southern Miss and entering the weekend, she is six steals away from moving into first place at South Alabama in the program's career list.
– Foster is tied for seventh in the league in doubles with four and her nine RBI are tied with freshman catcher Lyric Cabral for tops on the club.
– Devin Brown (7-6) continues to lead the Jags in the circle with a 2.42 earned run average.  Brown has gone the distance in eight of her 10 starts and has appeared in 16 contests.
– Brown struck out five USM batters in relief as she has now struck out 84 in her 81 innings of work.  She is 18th in the latest NCAA rankings in strikeouts and her 29 strikeouts looking are second in the Sun Belt.  She is also second in the league in innings pitched and appearances.
– Alexis Reid earned her fourth win of the season against Southern Miss and her second straight decision.  
– In her five innings of work against the Golden Eagles, only one of the four runs she allowed only one was earned.
– A. Reid enters the weekend with a 2.94 ERA and has struck out 41 in her 64.1 innings of work.  The junior righty ranks in the top 10 of the league in nine different categories.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS    
– UTA (9-9, 0-0 SBC) comes into Sun Belt play after going 2-3 last weekend at the North Texas Invitational.  The Mavericks recorded wins over Nichols State (4-1) and North Texas (10-0 [6]), but dropped a pair of games to Tulsa (11-3 [5] and 7-3) before falling in extra innings to the host Mean Green (9-8).
– UTA and South have faced three common opponents (North Florida, Providence and Southern Mississippi) during non-conference play.  The Jags posted a 3-0 record against those foes, while the Mavericks were 2-1.
– Jojo Valencia leads UTA in the circle with a 2.52 ERA, which ranks sixth in the SBC.  Valencia has gone the distance in four of her nine starts this season with a pair of shutouts.  In her 58.1 innings of work, she has walked just eight batters which is tied with ULM's Paige Murray for fewest in the Sun Belt.
– Valencia also ranks third in the SBC in both runs allowed (25) and earned runs allowed (21).
– Offensively, Sandra Mendoza leads the club with a .361 average.  Mendoza has 22 hits on the year and has scored 12 runs, both team highs for the Mavs.  Mendoza's 22 hits are tied for seventh-most in the league.
– Krista Rude (.327), Whitney Walton (.319) and Raegan Wright (.304) are also hitting above .300 amongst the regulars in the lineup.
– Rude has scored 10 runs and she is 7-for-9 in the stolen base department.  Rude's five sacrifice bunts are tied with Troy's Madeline Porter for most in the conference.
– Walton leads the team with three doubles and Wright has driven in 11.  Aileen Garcia's 12 RBI – tied for fourth in the SBC – pace the club in that category.

THE SERIES VS. UTA
– The meeting between South Alabama and UTA in the series opener will mark the 15th in the all-time series between the two clubs and the fourth Sun Belt Conference series.
– The Jaguars opened up SBC play during the 2014 season against the Mavericks with South sweeping the three-game series in Mobile.
– The two teams met a total of five times last season with UTA taking two of three from the Jaguars in Arlington during the regular season.  The two clubs also met twice at the Sun Belt tournament.  South Alabama won 5-0 in the opener, but dropped a 2-1 decision to UTA in an elimination game.
– South Alabama holds a 6-0 record in previous meetings in Mobile against UTA.
– The Mavericks took two of three against South Alabama during the regular season and the two clubs split their two meetings at the Sun Belt Conference Championships.
– UTA earned a 2-1 victory at the conference tourney to eliminate the Jags.

INSIDE THE SERIES VS. UTA    
Series: 11-3 (H: 6-0 / A: 4-2 / N: 1-1)
Sun Belt Conference Games: 10-2 (H: 6-0 / A: 3-0 / N: 0-0)
Sun Belt Tournament Games: 1-1 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 1-1)
Extra-Inning Games: 1-1 (H: 1-0 / A: 0-1 / N: 0-0)
Run-Rule Games: 2-0 (H: 2-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
NCAA Tournament Games: 0-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
First Meeting: 3/22/14
Last Meeting: 5/12/17
Longest South Alabama Streak: 9 ('14-'16)
Longest UTA Streak: 2 ('17)
Current Streak: 1 by UTA
Last 5 – 2-3
Last 10 – 7-3

SUN BELT OPENING SERIES
– In its 11 previous seasons in the Sun Belt Conference, South Alabama holds a 5-6 record in its league openers and has won five of its first 11 conference series.
– Last season, USA was swept 3-0 by Georgia State on the road in its first SBC series.
– South has dropped its last three SBC openers and last three SBC opening series.

SUN BELT HOME OPENING SERIES
– South Alabama also holds a 8-3 record in SBC home openers and have won eight of 11 home conference-opening series.
– USA has won six of its last seven SBC home openers and home-opening series.
– Last season, the Jags took two of three – winning the first and last games of the series – against Coastal Carolina in Mobile.

ROAD AND BATTLE TESTED    
– The Jaguars were definitely tested during the first four weeks of the season as 19 of their first 22 were away from Mobile.  Of those 19 games, seven were either ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes in one of the national polls.
– South Alabama didn't host at least one home tournament during the opening month of the season for just the second time in program history.
– Through the first 22 games, South also competed against some of the best competition in the country as eight of their 18 opponents were either ranked or receiving votes.
– The lone three home games for the Jags during that stretch came against Alabama, ranked 10th at the time, and a doubleheader against Florida State, ranked seventh at the time.
– Against the quality competition, South holds wins over FSU and Illinois, and games against Alabama (1-0), South Carolina (1-0), Louisville (5-4 [8 inn.]), at Tennessee (2-0) and at Mississippi State (6-3) were all decided by three runs or less.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Becky Clark
-On the improvements she's looking for heading into the weekend series: "I would like to see us clean up the walks and the errors that we've had defensively; that's uncharacteristic of how we play."

-On carrying on the offensive momentum into the start of SBC play: "The way we played Wednesday night at Southern Miss is what we've been looking for offensively out of our club.  We worked together and were able to string some things together.  We also applied pressure and kept applying it the entire game.  Our players have been trying to figure that part out and have worked really hard at it.  They've known what they needed to do, they just needed to break through, and I thought we did that in our last game.  I hope they can stay locked into that and carry it over into the weekend."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_Jags. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
    
Join the Bullpen Club, the softball specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund.  Members have access to purchase parking passes and receive Jaguar Softball gear.  All donations to the Bullpen Club go directly to support the South Alabama softball program.  For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/bullpenclub

—USA—