TROY, Ala. - South Alabama (31-19, 15-11 SBC) dropped the Saturday contest to Troy (25-26, 14-12 SBC) who jumped for an early lead and evened the series by a 10-5 final score at Riddle-Pace Field.
PRIMARY THREADS
- The Trojans jumped for three runs in the opening frame before grabbing another in the second to claim an early 4-0 lead.
- Blake Guerin launched his fifteenth homer of the season to the deepest part of the yard over the left-center field wall in two-run fashion to cut the Trojan lead in half, but Troy responded with three runs in the home half of the fourth.
- Troy plated two runs when it loaded the bases all with two outs and singled two home to increase the lead to seven runs through six complete.
- The Jaguar bats found life in the seventh when three runs crossed in the inning. Blake Guerin cashed in his third hit and RBI of the afternoon when he doubled home Duncan Mathews who drew a walk. Mike Young tripled to the left-center field gap driving in Guerin, which made way for Rett Johnson to knock in Young with an RBI single back up the box to strike for three in the seventh.
- Troy would hit a solo shot in the eighth to make it 10-5, final score.
KEY STATS
- Blake Guerin crushed his 15th homer of the season in a three-hit effort with a double and three RBI. Guerin matched his RBI total from the series opener to collect six in the series thus far, and pushed his hit streak to five games.
- Mike Young tripled to post his fourth of the season for an RBI and would score a run in a 2-4 afternoon at the plate. The multi-hit game marks Young's sixth hit of the series through the first two contests.
- Paxton Bigby tallied his third hit of the series in a 1-2 day at the plate with two walks.
QUOTABLE
HEAD COACH MARK CALVI
"We didn't run away and hide when we got popped in the mouth, but you can't give up 10 runs and win many games. They had momentum early, and offensively we had some strikeouts that hurt us with runners on. Just didn't get off to a good start, playing from behind. It is what it is, made mistakes out over the plate, but our guys competed. I told them I'm proud of their effort. They hung in there and battled. Today was not our day, series tied, and we'll show up tomorrow ready to go."
ON DECK
Sunday's rivalry rubber game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (CT).
Daniel Gonzalez (4-2, 3.84 ERA) is slated to make his thirteenth start for the Jaguars while junior southpaw Hayden Smith (2-0, 3.03 ERA) is the probable for Troy.
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USAJaguars.com.
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