MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama softball team will continue its current five-game home stand with a three-game Sun Belt series this weekend as the Jaguar welcome Coastal Carolina to Jaguar Field. The series is set to get underway on Friday with first pitch versus the Chanticleers scheduled for 6 p.m. Game two and three of the series are currently scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at noon.

Series Notes

GAMES 34-36 | COASTAL CAROLINA SERIES
Venue: Jaguar Field | Mobile, Ala.

SERIES SCHEDULE
Game 1: April 5, 2019 | 6 p.m.
Game 2: April 6, 2019 | 3 p.m.
Game 3: April 7, 2019 | 12 p.m.

GAME INFORMATION
Television: None
Radio: 99.5 The Jag FM (Sat. game only)
Live Stats: www.USAJaguars.com
Live Stream: www.USAJaguars.com
(In-Game Updates) Twitter: @WeAreSouth_SB

South Alabama JAGUARS
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | SA: -- | RPI: 94
Record: 12-21 (2-10 SBC)
Head Coach: Becky Clark (Mobile, '95)
Team Slash Line (AVG / SLG / OBP): .271 / .428 / .366

Coastal Carolina CHANTICLEERS
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | SA: -- | RPI: 107
Record: 26-10 (6-6 SBC)
Head Coach: Kelley Green (Northwestern, '96)
Team Slash Line (AVG / SLG / OBP): .254 / .502 / .355

SCOUTING THE JAGUARS    
– South Alabama (12-21, 2-10 SBC) comes into the series against Coastal after falling 2-0 at home to Southern Mississippi Wednesday night.  
– The Jags had their scoring opportunities leaving 11 runners on base. South had left at least one runner on base each inning, standing two runners four of those.
– South continues to be led at the plate by Brittani Reid as she has a .394 batting average, a .657 slugging percentage and a .508 on-base percentage. The junior outfielder has 39 hits this spring with 15 of those going for extra bases. Her nine doubles are tied with two other players for most in the Sun Belt.
– B. Reid also ranks among Sun Belt leaders in on-base percentage (fifth), walks (21 – T-sixth), slugging percentage (sixth), batting average (eighth) and hits (T-eighth).
– B. Reid has a team-high 10 multi-hit games this season and 22 for her Jaguar career.
– Kamdyn Kvistad is second on the Jag roster with a .320 average and hits (31). Kvistad has four home runs, three doubles and has scored 13 runs.
– Victoria Ortiz has been solid over her last 10 outings as she now ranks right behind Kvistad with a .319 batting average. Over the last 10 games, Ortiz has batted .406 and has recorded five of her multi-hit games during that stretch. The freshman outfielder has seven doubles, two home runs, 10 RBI and has scored 10 runs on the year.
– Kennedy Cronan (.292) leads the team with 22 runs driven in, while Kvistad and Abby Krzywiecki have 15 RBI each. Dayla Gulledge and B. Reid also have 14 RBI.
– Cronan, leads the club with six multi-RBI games this season, while Kvistad and Krzywiecki have five each.
– As a team, South has recorded 30 home runs this year – the eighth-most in program history – with Cronan's eight leading the way. Cronan's eight home runs are tied with two other players for fifth-most in the league. Eight players have two or more home runs this season.
– Freshman right-hander Samantha Yarbrough as had three-straight strong outings in relief for the Jaguars. Over that seven-inning stretch, Yarbrough holds a 1.00 earned run average, has struck out 10 and allowed just three hits while holding opponents to a .120 batting average.

SCOUTING THE CHANTICLEERS    
– Coastal Carolina (26-10, 6-6 SBC) enters the weekend series after taking two of three at home over the weekend against ULM. The Chants and Warkhawks split the first two games of the series, 7-5 and 10-2 [5 inn.], respectively. Coastal then took the series with an 8-0 [5 inn.] victory on Sunday as Kaitlin Beasley-Polko tossed a two-hit shutout.
– Beasley-Polko leads the team in the circle with a 17-6 record and a 2.13 earned run average. Beasley-Polko has gone the distance in 13 of her 19 starts. The sophomore holds seven shutouts this season and three saves. In her 138.1 innings of work, which is second most in the league. She has struck out 120 and walked just 41 over that stretch.
– The right-hander also ranks among the SBC leaders in ERA, opposing batting average, strikeouts, strikeouts looking, wins, among other categories.
– Beasley-Polko was selected as the Community Coffee Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week during weeks three and four of the season.  
– CCU was supposed to have had a midweek outing on Tuesday against UNC-Wilmington in Conway, but the game was postponed due to weather.
– Three of the Chanticleer's four Sun Belt series this spring have been on their home field. In the lone road league series, the Chants dropped two of three at Georgia Southern during the second weekend of Sun Belt play.
– Offensively, Coastal Carolina has been led by the duo of Courtney Dean (.337) and Taylor Sweigart (.326). Dean leads the club with 11 home runs and is one of four players this season with a team-high six doubles. The sophomore has also driven in 30 runners and recorded 74 total bases, both team highs as well, while her 24 runs scored are second most.
– Dean leads the Sun Belt in home runs, is tied for second in RBI and ranks fifth in the league slugging percentage (.712).
– Sweigart has 13 extra-base hits – six doubles, two triples and five home runs, and scored 22 runs.
– As a team, CCU leads the Sun Belt with 55 home runs. Of those 55 home runs, 46 have come on their home field.
– Kassidy Smith is second on the team in that category with nine home – tied for second-most in the league, while Abbey Montoya and Stavi Augur have five each.
– On Tuesday, Smith was selected as the Sun Belt's player of the week after hitting .444 (4-for-9) in four games with three home runs, five RBI, six runs scored and four walks to go along with a .643 on-base percentage and a 1.444 slugging percentage.

THE SERIES VS. COASTAL CAROLINA    
– South Alabama and Coastal Carolina have met eight previous times in the all-time series.
– South has taken five of those eight series meetings, while the two clubs have split the six Sun Belt Conference games in the series with each taking two out of three on their home field.
– The two clubs meet in Mobile during the 2017 season.
– The first two series meetings came during the 2009 season with the Jags winning both (12-1 and 10-0) in five innings at the Florida Lipton Invitational in Gainesville, Fla.

INSIDE THE SERIES VS. THE CHANTICLEERS    
Series: 5-3 (H: 2-1 / A: 1-2 / N: 2-0)
Sun Belt Conference Games: 3-3 (H: 2-1 / A:1-2 / N: 0-0)
Sun Belt Tournament Games: 0-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
Extra-Inning Games: 0-1 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-1 / N: 0-0)
Run-Rule Games: 2-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 2-0)
NCAA Tournament Games: 0-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
First Meeting: 2/15/09
Last Meeting: 4/29/18
Longest South Alabama Streak: 3 ('09-'17)
Longest Coastal Carolina Streak: 1 ('17)
Current Streak: 1 by Coastal Carolina
Last 5 – 2-3

RECAPPING LAST SEASON'S MEETINGS    
March 28-29, 2018 – After the two clubs split a doubleheader on day one of the series, Coastal Carolina picked up a 4-1 win in the finale to earn the series win.
– South broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the top of the ninth in game one, but CCU's Timi Tooley drove a 0-1 pitch just over the wall in left center for her fifth home run of the season, giving the Chanticleers the walk-off win.
– In game two, Kvistad became the first player in South Alabama softball history to hit three home runs in the same game as the Jaguars earned the doubleheader split with the Chanticleers (10-4) at CCU Softball Stadium.  As a team, the Jaguars hit four home runs in the victory.
– Coastal Carolina left fielder Natalie David's two-out, third-inning three-run home run proved to be the difference in the series finale as the Chanticleers took the series with a 4-1 victory.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Becky Clark
- On what the team can take from its last few outings: "Offensively, we need to string together quality at-bats. When we put together quality at-bats we are having big innings and we have to understand that it takes multiple people passing the bat and not giving the opposing pitcher a place to go for an easy out. On the mound, we need to continue to throw strikes and hit spots and give our defense a chance to make plays."
- On the importance of the five-game home stand: "Every conference series is important, which means you have to keep working and moving forward. All of it can be boiled down to competing and executing every single pitch. Every time we do that we give ourselves a chance to be successful."

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.

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