MOBILE, Ala. - Sophomore pitcher Zach Stevens led the Jaguars to stave off the Golden Flashes in skipper Mark Calvi's 400th career win.

Starter Zach Stevens shoved for 5.2 innings, throwing nine strikeouts, including striking out the side in the second inning. For run support, the Jaguar offense capitalized on infield mistakes in the second inning, with a fielder's choice that ended with all runners safe and Lucas Ismaili finding home. A wild pitch right after sent Brennan Holt in with another run. In the next inning, Duncan Mathews struck a hard double out to left-center field that scored two more. 

A Kent State homer in the top of the fifth cut the lead back down to two, but lefty Zach Willingham entered the game, only allowing a hit and a single in his first 2.1 innings on the mound. Lucas Ismaili sent the ball out of the park in the eighth for a comfortable three-run cushion, going into the final frame. A solo shot for the Golden Flashes wasn't enough, as Willingham froze the next batter with a backwards K in the top of the ninth, then ended the game forcing a lineout to first base.

Mark Calvi now holds a career record of 400-312 with a conference record of 199-150. 

Win: Zach Stevens (1-0)
Save: Zach Willingham (1)
Loss: Eric Chalus (0-1)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On earning 400 career wins: I didn't even know until Mags (Nick Magnifico) said it to me, but yeah, just thankful to my players and assistant coaches, those are the ones that get it done. You know, I'm just the figurehead here trying to keep things together, but these guys make it easy, man. We have a great group.

On the team's performance against Kent State: We beat a really good Kent State team. Our guys were prepared really, really well for their starter. We pitched extremely well. The game starts and stops on the mound and defensively always has and always will, and we were exceptional tonight. Zach Stevens was exceptional. Aside from the three hit by pitches, he was absolutely exceptional. 13, I think, we had 13 punch outs tonight in total, with one walk and three hit by pitches. Zach Stevens had nine, and Willingham had four. I'll take it six hits on a night where the wind's blowing out 15 miles an hour all night long. Pretty tough night to pitch. But our guys just stuck in there. We defended exceptionally well. Duncan Matthews was outstanding behind the plate tonight. I thought he really, really helped Stevens. But we need to be better when a team gets better as the game goes on, like Kent State did tonight, each guy they brought in got a little bit better than the guy before, and we need to do a better job. Coaches had him prepared for it. We need to do a better job executing our offensive game plan, but with that being said, I'm thrilled. It was a great win for us against a really good club. They're going to win some games this year, no question about it, they won 42 ball games in '23 and Kent State was in the College World Series, you know, 13-14, years ago. So that's a damn good club, but so are we. You know, I told our guys we faced some really good arms, but they faced some really good arms tonight against us. So proud of our effort. Coaches had them ready. Players were ready to go, and, you know, we are ready to go tomorrow.

UP NEXT
South Alabama will move into the back half of the South Alabama Invitational with a two game series against Eastern Kentucky. The first game will take place Sunday, at 3:30 p.m.

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