MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (19-25, 8-15 SBC) mounted an eight run lead through the first six innings, then held on despite a ninth inning rally to defeat No. 20 Troy (33-14, 15-8 SBC) as Saturday crossed into Sunday.

An early 2-0 lead for Troy in the first inning was spoiled in the third after Rett tied it up with a two-run double. Then stepped on home with Ethan Melton after Melton launched a ball into the stratosphere for his fourth home run of the year.

A John Smith III sac fly and Kyle Morrison infield RBI added another two in the fourth inning for a 6-2 game. The fifth inning stayed stagnant, but the Jags hit double digits in the sixth off four runs for the 10-2 score. Lucas Ismaili launched a sac fly for one, then with bases loaded Johnson layered a triple over the centerfielder's head to score all three runners.

Mitchell Heer commanded the mound for 7.1 innings (tied for career high), striking out five batters while giving up five hits and three runs and tossing a career number 124 pitches.

Home runs were traded in the eighth, with Ismaili scoring South's side of them, and three pitchers were used to close out the win, with John Gillis using seven pitches to earn the save.

Win: Mitchell Heer (6-2)
Save: John Gillis (3)
Loss: Noah Edders (5-1)

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi

On active leadoff hitters and five of first six leadoff hitters reaching base: Yeah, Edders is a strike thrower. I was shocked. You know, that wasn't like him. He had five walks, and we had some guys on and really didn't have a whole lot to show for it, man, that we, we finally broke through in the third there and scored four. They've got three or four, like, real leverage guys, and Grayson Stewart was one of them, and they felt like they had a chance. You know, it was early in the game, and they went to Stewart, and we did a good job with Stewart. We scored some runs on him. We got the bunt down and stayed on the line. We squibbed a hit, and, you know, we just, we played the game the right way, no errors. I hated the way the game ended. Such a shame. But you know what? We did enough offensively and we held on for the win. So proud of our guys' effort, long rain delay, you know, super proud of our guys' effort, not being distracted, staying focused. And we got a quick turnaround. We got to be ready to play tomorrow. 

On Mitchell Heer's work: Mitch was nails tonight. You're damn right. Mitch was awesome. Mitch was awesome. And he wanted to go out there for the eighth and I let him. The idea was to save arms for tomorrow. 

UP NEXT
South Alabama looks to take the series over Troy in Sunday's 1 p.m. contest.

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