TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - South Alabama holds back the Crimson Tide alongside an eighth-inning rally to win, 5-4.
After retiring the first six batters,
Zach Stevens was charged with Alabama's only runs in the third inning.
Danny Diaz came in for relief and forced a flyout on the first pitch thrown to end the third with an Alabama 4-0 lead.
To lead off the fourth
Lucas Ismaili put the Jags on the board with an opposite field home run. The next inning
Joseph Sullivan followed suit with a shot of his own to right field to cut the lead to two.
The bullpen continued to work, with
Tyler Smith recording 2.0 innings,
Jacob Haley logging two strikeouts, and
Logan Wash working the last out of the seventh inning.
The eighth inning was when the Jaguars started rolling. A leadoff base hit for Brennan started up the USA engine.
Ethan Melton Walked to put two runners on, and
JG Bell dropped a double into right field that scored both and tied the game.
Duncan Mathews followed it up with a single that scored Bell as the go-ahead run.
Seth Carter logged the first out of the eighth, then
Gant Starling was on the bump the rest of the way, striking out the first batter and forcing a groundout. A quick inning for the Jaguar offense sent Starling back out to close the game. Starling left a pop-up to center, then sent a full count slider on the next batter to catch him looking. An infield single beat out the throw to first, putting the tying run on base. Starling fell behind 2-0, drew two foul balls, then threw a slider under the batters swing to secure the win.
Winning Pitcher: Logan Wash (2-1)
Save: Gant Starling (1)
Losing Pitcher: Aidan Mozza (2-2)
QUOTES
Head Coach
Mark Calvi
On the team's pitching tonight: Our pen was phenomenal. I thought Zack Stevens was good. His velo was down a little bit. Last time at Old Dominion it was 92-94 is the low was down a little bit; we gotta get that corrected but for his first start coming off Tommy John's against an SEC team on the road hitting .313 as a club, the first two innings were good and I thought about taking him out and we didn't. They swing early in the count, and then in the third inning man, he was getting to the goal line. He just couldn't punch it in. He hit the guy in the foot and he gave up some two-strike hits. So he needs to finish guys off a little bit better but super proud of
Zach Stevens. He texted me Sunday and said, "Hey, you know, this might not be my place, but I want the ball Tuesday. I got it", and we were already going to do it. But it was so good to see him out there and our bullpen was lights out tonight.
Tyler Smith, Diaz Wash,
Jacob Haley,
Seth Carter,
Gant Starling, threw two freshmen and sophomore tonight against them; against a really good hitting club. Proud of our guys' effort, we were down 4-0 and you're almost like, "here we go again", but the dugout, everyone was calm, we kept working. And, you know, we got to hit lefties better. But, you know, I thought
JG Bell with the two-RBI double was huge. And then Duncan Matthews. You know, he hit the ball hard tonight two times and hasn't had a whole lot to show for his efforts in the last month, really, but he's kept his head. He's not getting frustrated. Of course, he wants to be hitting 300 Right now, but he's hit some balls hard. I thought he did a hell of a job. That guy blocked some balls tonight that 90% of the catchers in this country do not block, with men at third, with tying run, go-ahead run at third base, with
Gant Starling throwing 96 and 88 mile an hour sliders like, it ain't easy. So I thought Duncan Matthews was as much of an MVP tonight as anybody on the field. Just proud of our effort, Sully getting into one that big homerun and got us on the board, it was kind of quiet and I told the guys in the fifth and sixth, I said, "I'm telling you, we've got them where we want them. You just got to go get it. They don't know it yet. They're up 4-0. We've got them where we want them", because they were coming off the road. You know, they're kind of swinging early. They were taking some bad passes at balls and just kind of up on us and I'm like, "Man, we've got them where we want them. If you just go get the win. It's there for you. You got to go earn it. You got to play, you got to pitch, and you got to play", and they did it. I'm proud of our guys.
UP NEXT
South Alabama hosts Arkansas State as part of the conference slate, starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.
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