STATESBORO, Ga. - South Alabama (19-15, 6-7 SBC) fell to a bottom of the ninth walk-off from Georgia Southern (12-21, 5-8 SBC) in the series opener on Friday night at J.I. Clements Stadium.


PRIMARY THREADS

• Stewart Puckett wasted no time and tagged his sixth homer of the season to put the Jaguars on the board first with a solo shot in the opening frame. It's the second consecutive series Puckett has homered in the first inning.
• The bags were full of Jags for Ethan Melton with two-away who worked the count full and drew a walk on the payoff pitch for an RBI and the second Jaguar run in the top of the fourth.
• The Eagles tied the game at two in the bottom of the frame by way of a two-run homer.
• Situational baseball was on display in the sixth when Ethan Melton laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt to move Marc Stephens and Rett Johnson into scoring position. Brennan Wright did a job and knocked in Stephens with a ground ball on the infield to give his squad a one-run lead.
• Mitchell Heer exited in the eighth after delivering a career-high 7.2 innings pitched for Jaxon Shineflew who recorded the final out in the frame.
• Georgia Southern rallied in the ninth and won it on a three-run walk-off homer, 5-3 final score.

KEY STATS

• Mitchell Heer set a career-high 7.2 innings pitched and claimed his fourth Quality Start of the season with the following line: 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.
• Stewart Puckett drilled his sixth homer of the season to right field in the first inning, being one of two hits posted on the night. Puckett pushed his hit streak to a season-high nine games.
• Marc Stephens collected a 3-3 night with three singles, HBP, and scored a run.
• The Jaguars have lost three straight for the first time this season. The Friday night setback marks the first loss on Friday of the year (came in 8-0 on Friday's).

ON DECK
The series continues on Saturday, April 11 opening with a 3:00 p.m. (CT) first pitch. Right-hander Ryland Bozenhard (0-1, 4.15 ERA) is scheduled to make his sixth start of the season for the Jaguars, while left-hander Carter DeGondea (1-2, 9.58 ERA) is the probable for the Eagles.


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