HARRISONBURG, Va. | South Alabama scored four in the third and Tori Miller and Ryley Harrison held James Madison to four hits, as the Jaguars completed the Sun Belt Conference series sweep Sunday with the 6-1 win at Bank of the James Field at Veterans Memorial Park.

Quotable – head coach Becky Clark
- On the series sweep: "These were huge road wins for us this weekend. James Madison is very athletic and a well-coached team, so I'm proud of our effort and the results. I think it all finally started to click for us, and now it's up to us to keep it going."

Key Moments
•    James Madison (15-18, 3-6 SBC) had the first two batters reach to begin the bottom of the first after a walk by Kylee Gleason and a single by Madison Edwards, but Miller (5-2) was able to retire the next three batters and work out of the jam
•    Brooklynn Bockhaus was hit by a pitch from JMU reliever Taylor Johnson (4-6) with one out in the top of the third for South Alabama (23-15, 7-2 SBC), and two batters later, Gracie Dees lined a ball to left that hit the top of the wall and bounced over for her fourth home run of the spring (USA, 2-0)
•    Virginia Mambelli then reached on an error and moved into scoring position after a wild pitch and a passed ball on ball four to Olivia Branstetter put runners at the corners, and Kara Wine lined a two-run double off the wall in center to plate two more runs (USA, 4-0)
•    The Dukes broke up the shutout with an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth as Kendra Lewis led off the inning with a single to center and advanced on the play after a Jaguar error, and then came home two batters later on South's second error of the inning (USA, 4-1)
•    Kendra Lewis doubled to the left center gap with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Rylee Harrison (3 SV) was able to hold the JMU runner there with a fly out to center and a pop out to short
•    Dees drew a two-out walk in the top of the seventh and pinch runner Caitlyn Gavin stole second, before coming home on Mambelli's RBI-single back up the middle for the first run of the frame (USA, 5-1)
•    Branstetter then followed with a RBI-double to center, extending the Jaguar lead to five (USA, 6-1) 

Key Stats
•    Branstetter reached all four of her plate appearances as she was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, a RBI and a run scored
•    Wine and Dees each drove in two runs a piece in the win
•    Miller struck out four batters and allowed just an unearned run on three hits in her four innings of work
•    Harrison gave up just one hit in her three innings of relief
•    Miller and Harrison combined to hold JMU's offense to 1-for-12 hitting with runners on base and 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position

Postgame Notes
•    South Alabama has now won seven of the nine series meetings, including each of the last six – all regular-season SBC meetings 
•    The conference road sweep was the first for South Alabama since taking all three games at Georgia State during the 2024 season
•    Branstetter has had a hit in seven of last 10, and reached base safely in eight of those contests
•    With Dees' home run, four players now have four home runs for the Jags: Lillie Stagner, Mambelli and Branstetter
•    Dees has had a hit in 13 of her last 20 – including seven of her last 12 – and has recorded at least one hit in 26 of last her last 36 games 
•    Dees has had a hit, scored a run and driven in a run in three of her last five
•    Wine has had either a hit, a walk or driven in a run in 20 of her last 24 games
•    Wine has had a hit and driven in a run in eight of her last 11 games, and has reached base safely in 11 of her last 12 
•    Bockhaus now has five sacrifice bunts this season and 17 for her career, just one shy of moving her into the Top 10 of the category at South Alabama
•    With her walk, Bockhaus has reached base safely in each of her last four games
•    The save was the fifth of Harrison's career, passing Kalen McGill (2015) to move into stand-alone fifth place in program history
•    It was also the sixth save by the Jaguar pitching staff this spring, tying with the 2013 squad for second-most in a season and the most since the 2015 season when South set the program record with seven saves
•    The multi-RBI game was the fourth of the season for Wine and Dees' second
•    Dating back to game two of the series on Saturday, Branstetter has now reached base safely in each of her last eight plate appearances – five hits, three walks – which eclipses Mambelli's streak of seven earlier this spring
•    For the series, Branstetter was 6-for-9 (.667) with a 1.111 slugging percentage, while walking three times, scoring three runs and driving in two runs
•    Harrison struck out 11 in the series, held the Dukes to scoreless and to a .130 batting average, as JMU entered the weekend with a .322 and averaging nearly five runs a game

Up Next
•    South Alabama will return home to host Texas State for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series with first pitch of the series opener set for Thursday at 6 p.m.

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