MOBILE, Ala. -Â An offensive run in the seventh inning broke open the game against the Red Wolves, 10-3.
It was a tight, 2-1 ballgame through five innings.
Cam Hill led the way through 4.2 innings on the mound, only relenting one in the fourth after a groundout let in a runner from third base. Earlier in the second, South was able to put two runners on and send them both home from a single by
Duncan Mathews.
The Jags again threatened in the sixth inning, loading the bases after the first two batters went down on strikeouts. Mathews drew a walk to score a third run before the end of the inning.Â
The seventh again saw South Alabama load the bases, but this time with no outs, allowing
Ethan Melton to strike a double that scored two.
JG Bell scored another with a single to the outfield, and
Hunter Donaldson layed down a squeeze that scored another. A Mathews RBI single left the score 8-1, but
Will Turner made sure Mathews wasn't left stranded with a homer over the right field wall. The Red Wolves scored a two-run home run in the ninth but the Jags finished them off before any more damage could be done.
Winning Pitcher:Â Mitchell Heer (1-1)
Losing Pitcher:Â Jelle van der Lelie (2-5)
QUOTES
Head Coach
Mark Calvi
On Duncan Mathew's performance today:Â I thought Duncan had a really good night. Four RBIs, two hits, came up big, threw a runner out. Big time, had brought the infield in in a crucial part of the game, fortunate enough we got the ground ball and JG threw a strike to home and Duncan was right there. So yeah, I thought Duncan's been really good for us defensively all year long and he's had some tough luck offensively, but the game, it'll come back to you if you keep working and Duncan, that's what he does. He works you know, he keeps working. Yeah, he'd love to be hitting .400 right now, but he keeps showing up and having good at bats, and eventually they start to fall and he's finding some holes. He's hitting some balls hard that've been robbed. He's had some bad at bats, too. He's got some really good at bats where he's lined out, you know? So it kind of evens out if you continue to show up every day and that's what Duncan's done and happy to see him have a good night. He had his fingerprints all over tonight's win.Â
Thoughts on the offense: We had runners on base. We should have scored a run in the first inning. We had a base running blunder on a base hit up the middle and then we had a first and third, runner at third. We had a blunder trying to come home; got a late break and we got thrown out at the plate. Then we got doubled off on the fly ball tonight. We had a chance to score in the first inning to go up 1-0, and we left 10 men on base, but we got a bunch of hits. But we still you know we still left a few too many out there, but again, tonight the deal was hitters five through nine had eight RBIs, which was huge for us winning tonight. (Jacob) Haley off the bench was a big hit. It wasn't an RBI but it was hit so hard there was no way you could send a runner. I mean the ball was in the glove before the runner even reached third base. Then
Hunter Donaldson came off the bench and got the safety (bunt) down. Played a little small ball tonight and moved some runners around and it worked in our favor. I thought
Cam Hill was really good, three walks tonight. Five punch outs. I thought our pen was really good. Yeah, again (Logan) Wash came in in the leverage moment which was big and when Mitch(ell Heer) came in the game it was tight. So Mitch threw some leverage innings. We pulled away late but I thought Mitch, you know there were some stressful pitches. The game was tight and Mitch going three innings was big. I thought he was really good tonight. Gave up one hit, two walks, and a couple punchouts, he was really good and he picked the guy off.
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