MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (13-16, 3-7 SBC) got stronger as the night went on in the first Friday win of the season since opening day, defeating Georgia Southern (17-12, 5-5 SBC), 12-6.

Back-to-back doubles from John Smith III and Kyle Morrison were followed up by a Lucas Ismaili sacrifice fly to score Morrison for a 2-0 lead after the first inning.

Georgia Southern responded with three runs in the second and another three runs in the third inning. The Jags fired back in the bottom of the third inning with an RBI bunt single that preceded a three-run homer from Ethan Melton in his first home run of the season to tie the game at six.

Kyle Morrison loosed a two-RBI home run in the bottom of the fourth for an 8-6 lead. The Jags doubled up the Eagles after a four-run sixth inning. Johnson scored an RBI double to spark the first run, then found his way home when Josh Stevenson slapped his first home run of the year for the other three runs.

Lefty Jaxon Shineflew entered in the fourth inning, throwing 6.0 innings of shutout ball, with five strikeouts and only three hits allowed, earning his second win of the season.

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On what a win like this means for a team: Really big, you know, I think it's our first win on Friday night (since opening night). Really, really big against a good club. Their starter had some of the better numbers in the league for Friday night guys. You know, they're a dangerous team. The wind was blowing out, and we go up to nothing, and next thing you know, we're down six to two, and just the way our guys responded in the third, it wasn't like Grundy was walking a bunch of guys, we earned everything we got; nobody panicked. I just felt as though, you know, (Zach) Willingham is one of our guys, man, Willingham is one of our guys, and he got off to a rough start, and his teammates picked him up. There's been times where he's been great and we have not picked him up. Our guys picked him up. And I just felt as though we had gotten momentum back. I was going. We were down 6-2, and I was bringing (Jaxon) Shineflew into the game. I just felt like we needed to switch it up. I felt like our guys were dialed in. I felt like we were going to score runs. I felt like we could score more than six runs. It was just a matter of: Could we hold them down? And Shineflew was absolutely fantastic tonight on the mound. 

On the team's offense tonight: Our offense tonight was, was really good, 12 hits against a really good Friday night guy in this league. You know, K-Mo (Kyle Morrison), obviously, with a couple big blasts and multiple guys with RBIs, Lucas with an RBI, Rett Johnson with a big RBI, Ethan Melton with a home run, two hits. So good to see him, you know, hit a ball hard, hit a couple– and Josh Stevenson man, two of the hardest working guys. They haven't had a great start to the season, but we're at the halfway point, and I said today, with the way the wind was, I needed to put our best defensive outfield out there and I don't know if I would have done that if these kids had had shut it down a week or two ago when they weren't playing. Like Ethan Melton and Josh Stevenson allowed me to put in our best defensive outfield today because of the way they practice, because of the people that they are, and because of the way they show up every single day. They haven't played a whole lot in the last month or so, but, man, those kids are locked in. They want to win, and they've worked while they were waiting, and it paid off tonight. Couldn't be happier for those kids.

On Shineflew entering mid-game with a hitter-friendly environment: It says how good he is. I mean, he's just good. He's hard to hit. He's different. And when he starts grabbing, you know, ones and twos, like he did last week at Southern Miss, he's really hard to score against. He's hard to square up, and he's got the good changeup and the really good breaking ball now. I'm so proud of that kid, too, because he's worked extremely hard, and he needed to gain some weight, and he's gained weight. He's needed to get stronger. Last week, he dealt through a family issue and kept his poised and went out there and helped us win. Man, I can't say I can't say enough how proud I am of Shineflew and his development and how hard he's worked.

UP NEXT
South Alabama will play a doubleheader against Georgia Southern on Saturday, April 5. First pitch is slated for 11 a.m., with the second game starting 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one.

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