MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (23-16, 9-8 SBC) bounced back with a combination of early offense and efficient pitching from starter Ryland Bozenhard to even the series against Marshall (18-19, 9-8 SBC) on Saturday afternoon at Stanky Field.


PRIMARY THREADS

• While the Herd scored once in the top of the first, the unfazed Jaguars responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on a Blake Guerin double that split the right-center field gap to score Duncan Mathews and Brennon Wright.
• Ryland Bozenhard sat down the Herd in order in the second to maintain the momentum when the Jags struck for three runs in the bottom half. Ethan Melton's RBI knock plated Marc Stephens who singled, before a two-out Stewart Puckett double down the right field line allowed Wright and Melton to come around to score.
• South would grab another run in the third inning when Melton singled home Mike Young for his second RBI of the afternoon to make the Jaguar lead 6-1 after three complete.
• The score would remain true until the sixth inning, when an RBI single for Marshall scored one. Jaxon Shineflew entered with two-away in the inning and recorded his first of three punchouts.
• Stewart Puckett tallied his third RBI of the day knocking in Brennon Wright on a base-hit to right field to make the score 7-2. Marshall would add a run on a solo shot in the ninth to make the score 7-3 final.

KEY STATS

• Brennon Wright collected his 16th multi-hit game of the season on Saturday, contributing for three hits and scored all three times he reached base.
• Stewart Puckett led the way for the Jags in the RBI department with three, coming on a two-RBI double and a single.
• Blake Guerin's two-RBI day tallied his team-leading 40th of the season on a double and a single.
• Ethan Melton grabbed two-RBI on two base-hits and scored a run.
• Marc Stephens pushed his hitting streak to seven games with two hits, both singles in the contest.
• Ryland Bozenhard (W, 2-1) earned his second win of the season on just 64 pitches with the following line: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
• Jaxon Shineflew (S, 3) tallied his third save of the year in 3.1 IP with 3 K's.
• Both Bozenhard and Shineflew did not allow a single free pass in Saturday's effort.

QUOTABLE
HEAD COACH MARK CALVI
"We went nine innings, no walks, got eight of our nine lead-off outs. Did not do a great job of situational baseball in getting our bunts down, and I brought that up to the team, but really proud of our response after losing a tough one last night to a good club and a good pitcher. I thought Bozenhard was exceptional and so was Shineflew with a big bounceback outing. We had multiple guys with RBI's and with hits up and down the lineup. It was a good balanced attack today against a good club, proud of our effort."


ON DECK
The rubber game is slated for Sunday, April 19 at 12:00 p.m. (CT). Daniel Gonzalez (4-2, 3.80 ERA) is scheduled to make his tenth start of the season for the Jaguars, while right-hander Kenyon Collins (2-3, 6.15 ERA) is the probable for the Herd.


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