MOBILE, Ala. | Jenna Hardy tossed four scoreless innings of relief and Sasha Willems and Abby Allen hit back-to-back, sixth-inning home runs as the South Alabama softball team rallied back to defeat Tulsa Saturday night at Jaguar Field on day three of the South Alabama Invitational presented by Marriott Mobile.

Hardy (4-3) allowed just two hits and struck out six in her four innings of work. Victoria Ortiz was 2-for-3 at the plate and scored a run and drove in a run in the win to go along with Willems' and Allen's home runs. 

Quotable – head coach Becky Clark
- On the game: "tonight was a great team win. We squared some balls early on that were right at people, but we never panicked and just kept competing. It was good to get some innings from (Madison) Lagle and (Kaitlyn) Hughes. Hardy did a good job coming in and shutting them down until we could get the big hit. {Bailey} Welch's grab at the wall in the seventh was clutch."

Junior C Sasha Willems
- On what she was looking for in her sixth-inning at-bat: "I was looking for the hard pitch. (Maura Moore) had been throwing a lot of change ups and then consistently coming back with the hard pitch. I was looking for a pitch that was down and I wanted to drive it behind the runner on third because we needed to score her. She gave me a pitch that I was able to get my hands to."

- On the job Jenna Hardy did in the circle in relief: "Jenna was amazing for us. The way she just came into the game and dominated on the mound and got us through outs that we needed. Madison (Lagle) and KK (Kaitlyn Hughes) also did a great job in the circle for us throwing pitches. 

Senior P Jenna Hardy
- On coming in and tossing four scoreless innings of relief to give the team the opportunity to come back: "I knew coming into the game that I had to fight for my team and give them a chance (to rally). I don't want to ever take the bat out of their hands, I want to give them the chance to fight for us as a team."

- On what it meant to the team to be able to rally back in this type of game: "It's really big for us, because we've been preaching about team wins and just putting everything together. Tonight, I feel that we put everything together with the timely hitting, the defense and the pitching; everything was there."

South Alabama 5, Tulsa 3
Tulsa loaded the bases in the top half of the first with a pair of infield singles and a walk, and then took a 1-0 lead on Kailyn Bearpaw's sacrifice fly to right. Jag pitcher Madison Lagle – making her first collegiate start in the circle – settled down and with a pair of runners in scoring position, recorded a strikeout and a fly out to get out of the jam and limit the Golden Hurricane to the one run.

Meredith Keel reached with a one-out single back up the middle in the bottom half of the opening frame and then came around to score and tie the game up one two batters later on Ortiz's double to left center.

The Golden Hurricane had the first two reach again in their half of the second after a walk and an infield single. The two were then moved into scoring position and Haley Morgan plated a run with another sacrifice fly, this one to left to put the visitors back up by one (2-1).

With a runner on an inning later, Cierra Skaggs lined a triple to right to drive in another run and extend the Tulsa lead to 3-1.

Gabby Stagner had a one-out single and Ortiz followed with a single of her own to put runners at the corners in South Alabama's half of the sixth. Willems then gave the Jags their first lead (4-3) of the night with a three-run bomb over the wall in left.  Allen then proved some insurance as she followed with a solo shot over the wall in straight-away center to stretch the Jag lead to 5-3. 

Faith Russell led off the top of the seventh with a single and brought the potential tying run to the plate. The Golden Hurricane looked as if they had done that one batter later when Morgan hit a high, fly ball deep to left, but Jaguar outfielder Bailey Welch reached above the wall and made the catch. Hardy then retired the final two batters of the contest to seal the win.

Scoring Summary
•    1st Inn | Bearpaw flied out to right, sacrifice fly, RBI; Morgan scored (0-1, TU)
•    1st Inn | Ortiz doubled to left center, RBI; Keel scored (1-1, USA)
•    2nd Inn | Morgan flied out to left, sacrifice fly, RBI; Mackenzie Denson scored (1-2, TU)
•    3rd Inn | Skaggs tripled to right, RBI; Bearpaw scored (1-3, TU)
•    6th Inn | Willems homered to left field, 3 RBI; Stagner scored, Ortiz scored (4-3, USA)
•    6th Inn | Allen homered to center field, RBI (5-3, USA)

Postgame Notes
•    Mackenzie Brasher made her 100th career start in center field
•    With her first-inning single, Keel has now had at least one hit in 11 of her 14 games this spring 
•    Ortiz has had at least one hit in 11 of her last 12, and scored a run in eight of her last nine
•    The two-hit performance was the 33rd multi-hit game of Ortiz's career moving her into a three-way tie for 12th in the category
•    The first-inning double for Ortiz was the 36th of her Jaguar career, moving her into a tie with Christin Crocker (2009-12) for third all-time, while it was also the 63rd extra-base hit of her career tying her with Blair Johnson (2012-15) for fifth in the category
•    Sims extended her reached base safely streak to six games with her walk in the fifth inning
•    Stagner has had a hit in a hit in six of her last seven, and has scored a run in six of her last seven contests
•    Willems extended her five-game hit streak with her three-run home run, as she has had at least one hit in six of her last seven
•    Allen's home run was her first since March 19 of last spring at Texas State
•    The last time South Alabama hit back-to-back home runs was at App State (Abby Krzywiecki and Kennedy Cronan, 5/12/21) in the fourth inning of that contest, also with two outs
•    Prior to South Alabama's four-run, five-hit sixth inning, the Jags had scored just one run on two hits through the first five 
•    South had also been hitless in two-out situations prior to the three-straight hits in the sixth inning

Up Next
•    The Jaguars will close out play at the South Alabama Invitational on Sunday when they host Louisiana Tech at 1:30 p.m.

FOLLOW THE JAGS
For complete coverage of South Alabama Softball, follow the Jags on social media @SouthAlabamaSB (Twitter), /SouthAlabamaSB (Facebook), @SouthAlabamaSB (Instagram) or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at usajaguars.com.

  Read Full Article