MOBILE, Ala. | South Alabama fell behind early before forcing extra innings against No. 8 Coastal Carolina before falling 8-7 in 10 innings at Eddie Stanky Field on Friday night.
South Alabama (23-25, 11-14 Sun Belt) has dropped four consecutive conference games and finds itself one game back of Georgia State for the final tournament spot with five conference games remaining. The Jags gave five runs in the fourth before battling back with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning and three more in the seventh.
Grant Wood (4-3) suffered the loss out of the bullpen, working 3.0 innings and allowing just one run on one hit with three strikeouts. At the plate,
Micah Morgan finished 2-for-5 with three RBI and
JG Bell finished 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored.
Joseph Sullivan collected a pair of hits, including a solo home run.
How It Happened
- (B3) Austin Thrasher delivered a hit up the middle to score Diego Altamirano before Erick Orbeta scored on an error in the outfield on the same play, South Alabama 2-0.
- (T4) Zack Beach lined out to right field but it was deep enough to score Caden Bodine before Blake Barthol singled through the right side to score Derek Bender. The Chanticleers added to the lead with a two-out double down the left field by Dean Mihos to score a pair before Payton Eeles singled up the middle to score Mihos, Coastal Carolina 5-2.
- (B4) Morgan singled to center to drive home Bell with two outs in the inning before Thrasher drew a two-out bases loaded walk to draw the Jags to within a run, Coastal Carolina 5-4.
- (T5) Bodine led off the inning with a solo home run to left center, Coastal Carolina 6-4.
- (T6) Bender singled through the right side with two outs to score Eeles, Coastal Carolina 7-4.
- (B7) Sullivan hit a one-out solo home run to right field – his team-leading 12th of the season before Morgan delivered a two-run single up the middle to tie the game, 7-7.
- (T10) Eeles delivered a single up the middle to score Beach from second, Coastal Carolina 8-7.
Up Next
The two teams will meet for game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm inside Stanky Field.
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
General comments …
"We left 12 men on base, and we gave them five runs in the fourth inning, and it started with a leadoff walk. Our guys competed hard, but we needed to execute the most defensively in the fourth and offensively in the middle to late innings – in the second half of the game – we didn't do what we needed to do. We get a bunt down, now a flyout turns into a sac fly and
Micah Morgan's two runs and Wood closes it out in the ninth. But we didn't execute, left too many men, and had our chances. It's like a broken record, I hate to say it, our guys compete, they go hard, they show up. Lately when we have to get a hit and get a sac down, which we work on every day, we are just not doing the little things that the game is requiring us to do in tight games to beat good teams. We have come up on the short end against some good teams in tight ball games, we haven't won the leverage innings and moments to get the leadoff out after scoring two, to get the sac bunt down to move runners over, we haven't excelled at that enough. You lose tonight against a good ball club that we went toe-to-toe with. Nothing about Coastal surprised us, nothing at all. We will be ready to go tomorrow."
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