MOBILE, Ala. | South Alabama won its second consecutive Sun Belt Conference series, walking off Texas State 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning at Eddie Stanky Field on Friday afternoon.
With two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning after a pair of bunt attempts to score the winning run,
Erick Orbeta hit a ball up the middle that ended up scoring
Micah Morgan from third for the winning run. The walk-off hit is the first in regular season conference play since April 16, 2017, when Dylan Hardy delivered against Coastal Carolina.
The Jags have now won four of their last five games heading into their non-conference game on Tuesday in Montgomery.
Orbeta finished the day 4-for-6 for South Alabama (15-17, 5-7 Sun Belt), while
Will Turner and
Micah Morgan each picked up three hits in the win.
Mitchell Heer put together his second consecutive quality start, working 5.2 innings and allowing just one run in one hit with three strikeouts. He gave way to
Grant Wood with a runner at third in the top of the sixth inning.
Colson Lawrence (1-0) came in to work the 10th for the win.
How It Happened
- (T3) Davis Powell lined out to left but that allowed Peyton Lewis to tag and score from third for the game's first run, Texas State 1-0.
- (B4) Joseph Sullivan came around to score on a single to right by Micah Morgan after reaching on a fielding error, 1-1.
- (B5) Trey Lewis laid down a sacrifice bunt down the first base line to squeeze home Sullivan to give the Jags their first lead, South Alabama 2-1.
- (T7) Cade Manning hit a solo shot to lead off the inning for Texas State before Ben McClain singled to left center to drive in the go-ahead run, Texas State 3-2.
- (B7) Will Turner doubled home Erick Orbeta after a leadoff single, before scoring on a wild pitch to give the Jags the lead, South Alabama 4-3.
- (T8) Chase Mora led off the inning with a solo shot to tie the game, 4-4.
- (B10) After a pair of bunt attempts by the Jags, Orbeta delivered with a ball up the middle that scored Micah Morgan, South Alabama 5-4.
Up Next
South Alabama steps out of conference play heading to Montgomery to face Alabama State on Tuesday night at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
Talk about how hard this team has worked all year, today was a sign of that work …
"No question, no question. If anybody on this team had shut it down at any point or whined and moaned about not playing or not starting, or things not going my way or not getting my innings or at-bats, we lose that game. These guys, we talked about it a month ago when things didn't look good, there has been total buy-in from this team every single day. From the early going, things didn't go our way, but we didn't make our own breaks. I have seen a trend and not just in the last week or two, it has been in the last month. Mitch (Here) gave us a good start today and
Colson Lawrence was outstanding coming in cold from right field against the heart of their order. This is one of the best makeup kids, they work hard, there is zero selfishness. If guys are sulking, I don't see it they are doing it on their own time. We have some mature guys on this time, and they are a joy to be around every single day. You just want to see them win and win at a high level. We have really picked it up in two of the three areas, we just need a couple more guys to pick us up on the mound. Guys are capable, I don't care who it is, we have some guys who are a notch away from helping us big time on the mound which is what we need."
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Talk about Orbeta …
"That's what he does. He will sneak up on you, hit .340 last year and just when you think you got him down that day, he shoots one over the third baseman's head or chops one high enough that they can't get him out and shoots a ball in the gap for a double. He is hard to defend because he uses the whole field. Guys that work as hard as he does, guys that hit a lot usually hit a lot. Guys that work has hard as he does tend to be the luckiest but that is just a by-product of how hard he works and the 50,000 swings he has taken since he has been here in the cages, at night, in the morning. I am super excited for our team and for Erick."
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