MONTGOMERY, Ala. - South Alabama (33-22) dropped its Sun Belt Conference Championship opener to Troy (30-27) by a final score of 11-3 on Thursday morning at DABOS Park.
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Wednesday night (May 20) at 7:30 p.m., but was postponed due to inclement weather in prior contests.
PRIMARY THREADS
- The Jags got on the board first when Paxton Bigby had runners at the corners with one-away and put the ball in play for a fielder's choice and RBI in the top of the second inning.
- The Trojans responded with one of its own in the home half of the frame when a sacrifice fly drove in a run. Troy would strike for three more in the third inning when a two-RBI single did the job with the bases loaded and tacked on one more in the frame when the Trojan runner advanced from third on a first-and-third play.
- Mike Young won the foot race to the first base bag in the fifth on a ground ball down the first base line to plate Stewart Puckett in the top of the fifth.
- A Jaguar defensive miscue plated a run and set up a second sacrifice fly of the day to score the second run of the Troy half of the fifth inning to make it a 6-2 lead. The Trojans had a runner on third and one out following the pair of runs when it attempted a squeeze play resulting in 1-2 caught stealing.
- South Alabama got one back in the seventh when a failed pickoff attempt allowed Brennon Wright to reach third base before Stewart Puckett knocked him in with a base hit the other way.
- A Trojan solo shot in the bottom of the seventh stretched the Troy lead right back to four runs, before it added a four-spot in the bottom of the eighth to make it 11-3, final score.
KEY STATS
- Mike Young's infield single pushes his hit streak to a career-high nine games.
- Stewart Puckett collected his 18th multi-hit game of the season on two singles with an RBI.
- Daniel Gonzalez (L, 4-4) made the start and went 3.0 innings pitched while allowing four earned runs. Jaxon Shineflew entered in relief and worked 4.1 innings and allowed five earned runs.
QUOTABLE
HEAD COACH MARK CALVI
"We had chances, had bases loaded and didn't cash in. You can't give opportunities to a team like that and you have to take advantage of opportunities. We got five hits and lined out another seven times, but they played better in all three phases than we did today. Little things we uncharacteristically made mistakes on, gave up too many free passes, and not cashing in on some opportunities. That was the difference today."
On bounce back mindset moving forward into the afternoon game:
"You just take the game that you're playing, that's all you care about. I told these guys we picked a tough route but nothing has really been easy for this club this year and they've always risen to the occasion. It's about taking small bites because if you think about big bites you'll choke on the game."
THIRD BASEMAN STEWART PUCKETT
On flushing the morning game and moving into the afternoon contest:
"Got to take it one step at a time one pitch at a time. Don't think too ahead of yourself, come back rested and play the branded baseball that we always play."
ON DECK
The Jaguars will take on Georgia State in an elimination game this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. (CT).
FOLLOW THE JAGS
For complete coverage of University South Alabama baseball, follow the Jaguars on social media @SouthAlabamaBSB (Twitter), /SouthAlabamaAthletics (Facebook), @southalabamabsb on Instagram, or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at
USAJaguars.com.
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