MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (17-21, 7-11 SBC) held Texas State (19-20, 8-10 SBC) to the flames, scoring in five different innings while Zach Willingham controlled the Bobcats on the mound for seven innings in the 10-2 win.

A run in the first inning for Texas State set the Jags behind, but Josh Stevenson tied it up with his second homer of the season. The Bobcats and Jags then traded solo home runs in the third. Rett launched his first of the season to tie the game at two apiece after the first three innings.

Ethan Melton and John Smith III both struck RBI singles in the fourth for the 4-2 lead, and Duncan Mathews dropped a two-run single at the right field line in the fifth before reaching home on another Ethan Melton RBI single in the fifth inning.

All 10 of the Jaguar runs were scored with Zach Willingham on the mound defensively. Willingham navigated through 28 batters on 110 pitches for 7.0 innings and six strikeouts.

The final three runs came in the seventh inning by way of a Ty Brooks home run, his first of his collegiate career.

John Gillis and Andrew Floyd each tossed 1.0 innings to close out the game, and Melton went 3-3 at the plate with a walk and hit-by-pitch, reaching base in all five plate appearances.

Win: Zach Willingham (3-4)
Loss: Shane Connell (0-1)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On Willingham's start today: Willingham was absolutely fantastic. We got eight of our nine lead off outs today. Zach was seven for seven. You know, I woke up this morning and it was calm, and I live nearby, and I got over here and the wind was blowing 15 miles an hour, and I'm like, 'here we go again'. And when they jumped on the board early, I was like: 'All right', you know, solo home runs aren't going to kill you, and we answered back, and they scored it, you know, kind of stealing, moving around Mora. We couldn't stop Mora from stealing bases. You see why he was 13-15 or 12-14 coming into the series. He's got really good instincts on the bases. But man, Willingham was locked down from there. He gave up the solo, and he gave up the other run, and that was it. He just went to work. Threw his off speed for strikes, threw some good changeups, pitched in, even though the wind was blowing out. A lot of guys would kind of shy away from pitching inside on righties with the wind blowing out to the pull side. He actually stuck the ball in there. You know, the ball that's easier to pull is the one that's middle, out over the plate. That's the one that guys want to pull in college baseball. The ball in, they can't really get to. Willingham, man, I can't say enough good things about him. So glad he finished the seventh, coming back on short rest. He was outstanding against Arkansas State last weekend. He was just as good or better today. 

On the Jaguar offense: You know, offensively, when you look down the line, six, guys with RBIs, you and I've talked about this; when the bottom part of the order produces we win. And Greg Pettay, he had the sac bunts and the play that he made behind first base in foul territory, outstanding. So Greg had his fingerprints all over today's win, offensively, even though he didn't have a hit. Each at bat was very productive. I'm just so proud of our guys, effort, man. Our guys just fought all day long. Duncan Matthews with two RBIs, and Ty Brooks, the guys getting on  ahead of them. And Ty, getting into that ball, got it up into the wind and jet stream, and it took it out. I didn't think he got it originally, but that's how strong the wind is when that thing gets up, you know, 60-70, feet off the ground, it's different than what it is down on the ground. No errors today. We played clean defense. Yesterday, if we played cleaner defense, who knows? You know what I mean? So pitching and defense: when it's there, you're going to be in every baseball game if you're pitching and defense is good. So today our pitching and defense was outstanding, and we were very opportunistic on offense. I thought our guys were relentless and just kept fighting all day long.

UP NEXT
South Alabama will take to the road for a Wednesday night challenge at New Orleans, with first pitch set for 7 p.m.

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