MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama pitching dominates Arkansas State in 3-1 win to secure the rubber match.

Starter Leif Moore pitched 4.1 innings with five strikeouts, tying his season high. Moore allowed three walks and only allowed one hit, that being a home run that tied the game 1-1. Brennan Holt set the Jags up early with a solo homer in the first inning.

South and Arkansas State went back and forth in the middle innings, with the Jaguar pitching not letting up any runs from the fourth inning until the ninth. Ethan Melton lined a triple into the right field corner to place the go-ahead run just 90 feet away, and a Tyler Borges walk put two runners on base. A pass ball left home plate unattended allowing Melton to score and allow Borges to replace him at third. Rett Johnson then placed a sac bunt to add the final run of the game.

Gant Starling threw a season-high 2.2 innings to bridge the Jags to one inning of Tyler Smith on the mound in the eighth. Grant Wood came in to close, earning the save on a strikeout of the final batter.

Winning Pitcher: Gant Starling (4-1)
Save: Grant Wood (7)
Losing Pitcher: Max Charlton (2-2)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On the pitching staff's performance today and this weekend: Pitching has been great, bullpen has been great. We've had a couple guys step up. Leif Moore was really good on a day where the wind was blowing out 20 miles an hour, the worst weather day and the lowest scoring for a dangerous team. They got some right hand hitters with some strength that could get it up in the wind and then five guys in there that can take you deep today, and you know, I thought Leif Moore going four and a third, I thought that was huge. We wanted him to get through the lineup twice, and that's what he did. That was our goal coming into it. I told him I didn't need him to go six or seven but if he was really really good, you know, we'd go six or seven but I just felt as though that was the time with (Blake) Burris coming up. We threw (Logan) Wash out there again for the third time against him. He walked him, that's fine. But then Gant Sterling was huge. Tyler Smith and Woody, those guys were fantastic. Our bullpen has been really good. I thought we got some decent work out of our starters, aside from yesterday. If he (Jaxon Shineflew) could have gone a little bit deeper I would have really liked it. But yeah, we didn't have a whole lot on. I give their kid (Dylan Heine) credit. He had a 3.00 ERA coming into the game. And they're 37 games into this and the kid had a 3.00 ERA, so it's not just because he was throwing 92-94.He was a pitcher. He added and subtracted. He's got their best numbers, probably should be going on Friday. Can I give him credit with the wind blowing out that dude uses both sides of the plate threw three or four pitches for strikes. We got a couple hit by pitches. Brandon Holt getting on a fastball in the first inning putting us up one to nothing. And then Melton leading off the seventh with the triple. I think Borges just got on, Borges walked and then we started playing some small ball, safety (squeeze). Bored just did a great job. They had the infield in with nobody out taken second base, ball to the backstop, we scored and then he got to third, and then we ended up you know with a suicide squeeze. I thought Rett Johnson was big there. So I'll take it. You know, you'd love to beat everybody 10-1 but that's not the game and we'll take a win and we pitched and were phenomenal on the mound and played great defense.

NEXT UP
South Alabama travels to New Orleans to take on Tulane in a midwest matchup on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. before the weekend series in San Marcos at Texas State.

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