MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (25-18, 10-10 SBC) got out to a hot offensive start but dropped the Saturday contest to Southern Miss (31-12, 13-7 SBC) at Stanky Field.


PRIMARY THREADS

• The scoring started early when the Golden Eagles jumped for three runs out of the gate on a three-run homer. The Jaguars sparked a first inning rally of its own when Brennon Wright led-off the offense off with a double. Stewart Puckett knocked in Wright on a base-hit to right field before the Jaguars loaded the bases with two-away for Marc Stephens, who came through with a double down the left field line to plate all three aboard and complete the four-spot frame.
• After Ryland Bozenhard posted a zero in the second inning, the Jaguar bats notched another run by way of Blake Guerin's RBI double, drilled down the left field line.
• Southern Miss mounted a 10-run third inning on eight hits to take a 13-5 lead after three innings.
• A two-run Golden Eagle sixth increased the lead before the Jaguars grabbed a run in the home half of the frame on a Stewart Puckett sacrifice fly to center field, plating Nick Richardson.
• The Jaguar bullpen posted zero's in the seventh and eighth frames, but the Golden Eagles would score once more in the ninth. Blake Guerin launched his Sun Belt-leading fourteenth homer of the season in the bottom half which would land the final, 16-7 Southern Miss.

KEY STATS

• Brennon Wright pushed his hit streak to five games after a 2-5 day at the plate. The multi-hit game is his 18th of the season.
• Blake Guerin turned in a three-hit day with his conference-best 14th homer of the year.
• Marc Stephens led the RBI category for the Jaguars on Saturday with three after his first inning bases-loaded double.
• Stewart Puckett collected two knocks and scored a run.
• Reliever Tyler Smith delivered a season-high 3.1 innings pitched and allowed two runs.
• Konnor Graham allowed a run in his season-high 1.2 innings pitched in relief, while Will Sparks, Sam Brady, and Bray Goode combined for 1.2 innings scoreless out of the bullpen.

QUOTABLE
HEAD COACH MARK CALVI
"We just weren't good enough on the mound today. I thought our guys from the fourth inning on were good today, but not close to good enough in 1-3. Missing over the plate, not locating, not finishing hitters is not the recipe to beat those guys over there. You don't need to be perfect, but you need to be a lot better than what we were today. We have a third of the series left, but we need to pitch a whole lot better and take advantage of scoring opportunities when we get them, and not let their pitchers off the hook. Not a good day for us, but we'll move on and our guys played hard until the end. We got some guys in there that don't have a lot of playing time, innings, or at-bats, and they did a good job. They battled so we'll be ready to go tomorrow."


ON DECK
The series finale is slated for Sunday, April 26 at 1:00 p.m. (CT). Daniel Gonzalez (4-2, 3.55 ERA) is scheduled to make his eleventh start of the season for the Jaguars, while right-hander Camden Sunstrom (3-3, 2.57 ERA) is the probable for the Golden Eagles.


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