MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (5-4) stacked crooked number innings late to ride to a seven-run margin of victory over the Hornets (4-5).

The Jags pounced early with back-to-back triples to open the game, followed by an RBI single. South's starter on the mound, Tyler Smith, despite giving up nine singles in the first three innings, only allowed two runs in the third. Smith then clamped down, just allowing two hitters to reach on walks in the fourth, and finished his outing strong working three outs in a row in the fifth. 

The bottom of the fifth inning began with a Rett Johnson double and a Cole Ketzner single, leading to Duncan Mathews rocking his first career home run 395 feet and over the left-center fence for three runs.

Ketzner scored one more in the next inning with an RBI single to up the score to 6-2. A quiet seventh inning gave way to the eighth, where a Duncan Mathews single sent a batter home and a bases loaded situation led to a walk scoring another. Mike Young batted into a fielder's choice but Mathews made it home in time to score the ninth and final run. 

Working in relief for the Jags, Garret Kangas tossed 2.2 innings with five strikeouts, and Andrew Floyd handled the final 1.1 innings.

Win: Tyler Smith (1-0)
Loss: Caleb Sanders (0-2)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On tonight's game: We talked about us as an offense, ganging up on somebody. We haven't ganged up on anyone. You know, we saw UAB got us Friday night, and we saw UNO gang up on us the other night, and we haven't done that yet, and our guys did it tonight. And, you know, up and down the lineup, just an outstanding effort. Five, guys with RBIs. When you have multiple guys with RBIs, you're doing something. I thought we jumped on him early with two runs. And then we had some bad at bats. We had a rollover, a walk, and then, like, bad, at bats where we could have gone up four, five, to nothing in the first inning, and we didn't do it. And then it was kind of like last night, then they came back and they tied us in the third and they had like, nine hits to our five. And, you know, there were some "here we go again" thoughts. We just kept working. And, you know, got through their available pitchers tonight, and did a really nice job.

On the pitching staff's performance: I thought Tyler Smith was unbelievable. I mean, he had a nine hitter and gave up two runs. He had two walks in there, but they weren't at the wrong time. They weren't lead off walks. He wasn't spraying it around. He wasn't behind on guys all night on 2-0 counts, where you have to become predictable. A couple of those hits were choppers, a bunt, and you're like, again, "here we go again", but our pitching staff was outstanding tonight. Kangas was really good. He found his slider that's the best his slider has been since the spring started, and then Floyd. Floyd was really good. Floyd's tough to deal with. So really proud of our guys. You know, great team win and gives us some momentum right now, but it's more important, we've got mental momentum.

UP NEXT
South Alabama continues the five game homestand with a weekend series against the Jacksonville Dolphins, beginning Friday, Feb. 28 at 6:30 p.m.

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