MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama ends the game early off of two explosive innings in the 12-2 win over the Colonels.

After an early score for EKU in the second inning, it was all South the rest of the way, with the Jags taking the lead in the third inning off two sacrifice flies bookending a Kyle Morrison triple that netted two RBIs. 

Redshirt senior Dalton Brooks entered the game from the bullpen, going 3.1 innings for five strikeouts on the way to earning his first career win as a Jaguar. Brooks faced 13 batters only allowing three to reach base before passing the baton off to sidearmer Garret Kangas.

Halfway Kangas' outing, the Jaguar offense turned the infield into a carousel. A wild pitch scored the first, then back to back walks loaded the bases. The third walk in a row scored the second run, with another wild pitch right after giving the Jags three. A two-RBI single from Brennan Holt momentarily cleared the bases before he was sent home off a Hector Mangual double. A Lucas Ismaili sac fly scored the penultimate run, followed by a wild pitch that sent Mangual home, making a 10-run canyon for South Alabama heading into the seventh inning.

Kangas, after a walk struck out two Colonels in a row before allowing another walk. The final out was a lineout to Mangual in the six-hole to end the game after seven innings. 

Win: Dalton Brooks (1-0)
Loss: Elijah Underhill (0-1)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

Overall thoughts on the game: My general thoughts were we faced a really electric arm in their starter. We knew he had good stuff, knew he had a good arm, but we also knew he could lose it. You know, he can burn your house down, or he can burn his own house down. And you saw through the first two innings, I think he had four or five punch outs. I would like to see us put them in play a little bit earlier, but I got to give him some credit. You know, seeing 95-97 (mph) is tough to get ready for, but I felt as though our guys weren't in cheap mode. We weren't in pull off mode. We took some walks. He unraveled in the third and we scored four. I think we had 10 walks today. And, you know, we had 13-14, free bases today. So to me, that's like getting, you know, 10 hits, 10 singles. We had guys on base. Didn't look good early, but our guys didn't panic. 

On Dalton Brooks' pitching from the bullpen: I thought Dalton Brooks. Dalton Brooks was the player of the game today. He came in and just settled it down. I think Brooks went, he went three and a third, two hits, one walk, five strikeouts. He was outstanding. Yeah. He was really good for us. He was supposed to start tomorrow, but he was a good matchup because they had a lot of left handed hitters, a lot of switch hitters that Brooks is better against lefties with his changeup. And it's hard. Like I said, he was outstanding. He shut them down in the middle when we needed it the most.

UP NEXT
The Jags will run it back against Eastern Kentucky on Monday at noon to close out the opening weekend.

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