MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama stayed steady in the low scoring affair against Eastern Kentucky, ending the opening weekend series 4-0.

It was a day of firsts for the Jaguars, with three players making their first starts at South and two pitchers making their debuts. Sophomore lefty Andrew Elkhill made his first career start, throwing 2.0 innings and earning his first four outs as strikeouts. Right hander Brian Garmon came out of the pen for two innings, only allowing two walks and was listed as the pitcher of record as the Jags knocked in a run with a Josh Stevenson RBI single in the third, and a John Smith RBI double in the fourth.

Garmon began a run for the Jags' pitching that retired 13 batters in a row from the third inning into the seventh. Seth Carter entered for 2.0 innings to continue the run, striking out the first batter, forcing four fly outs in a row, and then drawing ground outs for the final two. A hardlined single from Garfield Johns' third batter ended the streak, but Johns ended the inning with a flyout and handed the final two frames over to Andrew Floyd. Floyd sent his first two batters faced right back to the dugout, with one whiffing, and the other watching the strikeout. To end the game, EKU loosed a single into the outfield, leading to a fielders' choice for the first out, followed by Floyd's third strikeout, then another fielders' choice to close out the game.

Win: Brian Garmon (1-0)
Save: Andrew Floyd (1)
Loss: Carson van Haaren (0-1)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On his pitching staff's showing today: I was (pleased), we had to cover innings 28 through 36 today, in game four, you know, we knew it was gonna be a bullpen day. I thought those guys were fantastic. Elkhill, aside from the pickoff attempt that he threw away, we would have shut them out. We got eight of our nine lead off outs, which was huge, you know, and the one we don't get, it's in the ninth inning, the guy leads off with a hit, right, when you can't afford to get a guy on. We had 11 strikeouts and four walks; I didn't like the four walks early, that's got to be cleaned up, but other than that, man, you know, no fielding problems, we were really good defensively. Again, aside from the errant pick, played really good defense. I thought our bullpen, I thought our bullpen was really good. We gave up three hits and no earned runs. We're almost three to one with strikeouts to walks. So a couple guys got out there for their first time. Elkhill making his first start here, Garmon, first appearance, John's first appearance in a year, and then Floyd, his very first appearance and with the save.

UP NEXT
South Alabama goes upstate for the first road contest of the season in a three game series against the Blazers of UAB. Game one begins on Friday, Feb. 21 at 2 p.m.

FOLLOW THE JAGS
For complete coverage of University South Alabama baseball, follow the Jaguars on social media @SouthAlabamaBSB (Twitter), /SouthAlabamaAthletics (Facebook), @southalabamabsb on Instagram, or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at USAJaguars.com.