JACKSONVILLE, Ala. | Jacksonville State had back-to-back big innings to start the series finale, defeating South Alabama 11-9 at Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium on Saturday night.
Jacksonville State (6-10) won the final two games of the series after scoring seven runs combined in the first and second inning, including four in the first before South Alabama got on the board in the third. The Jags fought back after getting down 11-1 in the sixth, scoring eight combined in the seventh, eighth, and ninth.
Colson Lawrence led South Alabama (8-8) at the plate, picking up three hits including his fourth home run of the season in the third inning while
Mitchell Heer finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Will Turner extended his on-base streak to 19 games dating back to last season with an infield single in the first.
Walker Johnson (0-1), in his first start of the season, went 0.2 innings and allowed four runs off five hits with a walk before giving way to
Eric Lin who went 2.0 innings.
Logan Wash came on to settle things down for the Jags, working 1.1 innings of scoreless relief before giving way to
Garfield Johns, the fourth of seven pitchers, in the fifth.
How It Happened
- (B1) The Gamecocks got on the board first with a two-run single by the middle by T.J. Reeves after back-to-back singles to open the inning. They added another run on a sacrifice fly to right by Brennen Norton to score Reeves before an infield single off the bat of Javon Hernandez added to the lead, Jacksonville State 4-0.
- (B2) Mason Maners extended the lead with a two-run home run before Reeves came up and went back-to-back with a solo shot to left, Jacksonville State 7-0.
- (T3) Lawrence put the Jags on the scoreboard with his fourth home run of the season – a solo shot to left, Jacksonville State 7-1.
- (B5) Madliak recorded an RBI groundout to score Caleb Johnson, Jacksonville State 8-1.
- (B6) Carson Crowe doubled to right to score Mason Maners before Norton lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Reeves. Hernandez delivered an RBI double to right center to score Crowe after a pitching change, Jacksonville State 11-1.
- (T7) Trey Lewis delivered an RBI single to score Heer, Jacksonville State 11-2.
- (T8) Micah Morgan reached on a fielder's choice driving home JG Bell before Heer singled through the right side to score Joseph Sullivan. The Jags continued to add runs in the inning with a two-run double by Lawrence to score Heer and Morgan, Jacksonville State 11-6.
- (T9) Ryan Storey scored on a wild pitch before Cole Ketzner lifted a fly ball to right that led to a pair of errors that scored two more, Jacksonville State 11-9.
Up Next
South Alabama returns home on Tuesday night, facing No. 18 Alabama at Eddie Stanky Field. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 pm.
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
Obviously you would like to take the last three innings and put them near the beginning of the game …
"We just got off to a bad start, it happened. Our guys didn't quit fighting, we just weren't competitive enough in the box and certainly not on the mound for the first half of the game. Those two components, not competitive in the box and on the mound. We had a couple of hollow at-bats and on the mound. We stayed in the game and kept fighting but came up short., It's hard to play from behind when you are facing some good arms when you are down seven runs early, we had a chance to get some guys in there today which was good, couple different hitters and pitchers. We will see moving forward."
Some guys had a nice outing tonight …
"Colson had a good day; we will need more of that from him. Mitch had a couple hits tonight. We have four or five guys who are giving us good at-bats, and four or five not to be quite honest. We have four or five pitchers who are giving us everything they have, and others who are not. We need the guys who haven't been good enough to step up. They play hard, their practice hard and they work hard. They are just half a notch away – some of the guys. It is just a matter of putting it together and we will see where we finish up."
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