South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
After a setback in the first game against Western Kentucky, South Alabama rebounded to win the next two to clinch the series.
On Friday night, the Hilltoppers used a five run sixth inning to defeat the Jags 10-8. Tanner Perkins allowed two runs on six hits while striking out four with only one walk in six innings of work for the ‘toppers.
Jarron Cito took the loss in five innings of work by allowing seven runs on six hits with one strikeout and three walks.
On Saturday, the Jags used a four-run sixth inning to defeat the ‘toppers by a score of 6-3 to even the series and set up the rubber match on Sunday.
After five-and-a-half innings, the Jags and ‘toppers were tied at 1-1, but three hits and four runs later the Jags were in control at 5-1.
Matt Bell went 5 1/3 innings while only giving up two hits, one run, three walks and five strikeouts but got a no decision in the game. James Traylor came in and pitched 2/3rds of an inning of shutout, no hit ball while picking up the win. Dylan Stamey pitched two innings and allowed six hits, two runs, two walks and two strikeouts.
But Kyle Bartsch pitched a perfect ninth inning to pick up the 19th save of his career and to become the school’s all-time saves leader.
On Sunday, the Jags clinched the series with a 7-5 win over the Hilltoppers at Eddie Stanky Field. After the weekend series the Jaguars improved their overall record to 29-12 (12-6 SBC) while Western Kentucky fell to 21-19 overall for the season and 11-7 in Sun Belt play.
After WKU scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game up at 5-5. But the Jags responded in the bottom of the inning to plate two runs for the final margin of 7-5.
Jacob Noble pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and two walks. James Traylor picked up his second win on 2/3rds of an inning of work with one hit and one walk. Kyle Bartsch pitched two shutout innings with two walks and two strikeouts to earn his 10th save of the season and 20th save of his career.
With the series win, the Jags take a one game lead in the Sun Belt Conference standings. Troy, FAU and Western Kentucky are all tied for second place one game behind the Jags in the standings.
The Jags will host a two-game midweek series against Jacksonville State University on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Softball
The lady Jaguar softball team swept another conference opponent as the Jags earned two run-rule decisions against Louisiana-Monroe in Louisiana.
On Saturday, the Jags won both games of the doubleheader by a combined score of 25-1. The Jags combined the for 21 hits with six home runs to win the games by scores of 11-1 and 14-0.
Haley Fagan led the Jags on Saturday by going 6-for-7 with two home runs, four runs scored and five RBI. Her slugging percentage was 1.714 and had a on-base percentage of .857. Plus the freshman extended her team-leading RBI stat to 43 and now takes the team lead in home runs.
Brittany Fowler extended her on-base streak to 23 consecutive games to tie her career high for this mark. She went 4-for-5 with two RBI and four runs scored.
Hannah Campbell and Farish Beard both earned their 18th win of the season on Saturday. Hannah struck out four with only three hits, no walks and one earned run. Beard pitched three shutout innings in the second game while striking out five with only one hit and a walk.
On Sunday, the Jags blanked the Warhawks in a run-rule shorted finale to the weekend series by a score of 8-0. This was the first time in school history that the Jags swept a weekend series all by mercy-rule wins.
The lady Jags scored four runs in the top of the first inning with three consecutive singles by Fowler, Blair Johnson and Fagan. Fowler would score on Fagan’s base hit while the other two baserunners would score on a wild pitch and throwing error. Alex Breeden would get an RBI single to push Griffith across the plate.
Farish Beard pitched four innings to earn her 19th win of the season. She struck out seven and only allowed one hit and one walk. Hannah Campbell pitched two innings while striking out four with only one hit herself.
The Jags will round out the regular season when they play Troy three times this week. The first will be on Wednesday at Jaguar Field in Mobile then the final two games will be in Troy, Alabama in a doubleheader on Saturday on May 4th.
The Sun Belt Championship will begin on May 8th and will be hosted in Troy, Alabama. South Alabama continues to hold onto the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference with a 16-3 record ahead of Western Kentucky who has a 15-3 record in Sun Belt play. The Jags run their overall record to 40-7 on the season.
The Lady Jaguars are #17 in RPI, is ranked #20 in the USA Today coaches poll and is ranked #21 in ESPN.com poll.
Graves Adds Final Assistant To Staff
South Alabama’s head basketball coach Matt Graves announced the addition of Dan Matic to finish his staff. | Photo usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s head basketball coach Matt Graves completed his staff on Thursday when he announced the addition of former Eastern Illinois assistant Dan Matic to his staff.
Matic is a native of Brooklyn, New York and spent the 2012-13 season at Eastern Illinois as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. One of his recruits led all of the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring as a freshmen as the Panthers qualified for the conference tournament for the first time in three seasons.
Prior to EIU, he was an assistant at Olney Central College in Olney, Ill. In his lone season at OCC, they won 27 games and won the Great Rivers Athletic Conference championship for the first time in 14 years. Under his tutalige, Trivante Bloodman earned player of the year honors in the GRAC and the team finished second in the NJCAA region 24 Tournament, the best finish by the school since 1994. Five players, including Bloodman who signed with Mississippi State, went on to play at NCAA Division I schools.
Matic also worked as a video coordinator for the USA National Basketball team in 2009 in the 2009 World University Games in Serbia. The team led by Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan brought home the bronze medal. Matic then served two seasons as a graduate assistant and academic mentor at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Matic began his coaching career in 2001 with AAU Team Takeover of New York City. During his six seasons as head coach he led the squad to a sixth-place finish at AAU nationals and had 16 player earn scholarships to Division I schools. Devin Eubanks, who went to West Virginia and is now with the L.A. Lakers, and Ed Davis, who went to North Carolina and now the Toronto Raptors, were two who earned scholarships.
USA Has Four Named To All-SBC Teams In Tennis
South Alabama placed four student-athletes on All-Sun Belt teams on Wednesday.
Sophomore Daniel Leitner and senior Alex Bernard were named to the 2013 All-Sun Belt Conference Men’s Tennis Team. Leitner was voted to the first team in singles while Bernard was voted on the second team in singles, giving him his second consecutive All-Sun Belt honor in the last two seasons. He earned doubles honors in 2012.
The #2 seeded South Alabama Jaguars will open play in the Sun Belt Championships on Thursday against Western Kentucky.
Sophomore Emily Newton and freshman Michaela Meszarosova were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team for women’s tennis.
Newton was named to the second team in singles while Meszarosova was to the doubles second team. These honors were the first for the program since 2009.
The Lady Jaguars earned a #4 seed in the Sun Belt Championships and will play the winner between #12 Western Kentucky and #5 Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday morning.
Terry Fowler Hired As Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Terry Fowler was named the new head women’s basketball coach at South Alabama. | timesdaily.com
South Alabama Athletics Director Joel Erdmann announced he has hired Terry Fowler as the head women’s basketball coach for the Jaguars. Fowler is coming off two NCAA Division II Tournament appearances in the last three years at the University of North Alabama.
Fowler has been the head coach at UNA for the last seven seasons as the guided the Lions to the NCAA tournament in both 2011 and 2013 by winning 20-plus games in each of those seasons. He was chosen to Gulf South Conference East Division Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading his team to a 12-0 record in conference play. They would finish 21-7 after advancing to the NCAA Tournament for thier first appearance in the event since the 1993-94 season.
When Fowler was hired by UNA, he inherited a team that won 11 games combined the two previous seasons. In his first season, he led the Lions to a 14-14 record overall and their first berth in the conference tournament since 2003. He then coached the team to winning records in each of the last five season posting an overall record of 115-87 for a 56.9 winning percentage. He also has a 57-32 record in conference play for a 64 winning percentage.
Fowler has previously worked at both Spring Hill and South Alabama prior to his stint at UNA. He was an assistant on the Lady Jaguars staff during the 2000-01 and ’01-02 seasons. He also served as an assistant at SHC from 1993-98 before being promoted to head coach before the start of the ’98-99 season. He led the Badgers to their first-ever NAIA Tournament appearance with a 23-11 overall record while winning both the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles. He was named the conference coach of the year.
He returned to SHC in 2002 to lead the Badgers to their first ever NAIA national ranking and the semifinals of the GCAC TOurnament on two occasions.
Graves Announces Nored Will Join Staff
Butler alumni and Alabama native Ronald Nored joins Matt Graves’ staff at USA. | collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com
South Alabama head basketball coach Matt Graves announced an addition to his staff on Tuesday. Homewood, Alabama native Ronald Nored will return to his home state to be an assistant coach for the Jags. Nored was a former Butler standout and comes back to the state after spending one season as the head coach at Brownsburg (Indiana) High School.
During his playing career, Nored set a record with 143 games played, including a school record 16 postseason games, while leading the Bulldogs to three Horizon League regular season championships, two league tournament titles and four consecutive trips to postseason tournament play. It included back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship title game. During his four years at Butler, they one 109 games and were 12-4 in postseason play.
During his senior season Nored led the Horizon league in assist/turnover ratio with 1.9, was second in assists per game with 5.2 and set a new school record with 193 assists which broke the previous record of 172. He ranks second in Butler’s career assists list with 497.
He was also only the second player in school history to record 400 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists in a career.
In his only season as a head coach, Nored’s team began 3-8 but rallied to finish 11-10 on the season.
Jags Fall To #6 Florida State 2-0
South Alabama’s Payton Gardner went six innings and allowed only one earned run on five hits with seven strikeouts and only one walk in the 2-0 loss to #6 Florida State on Tuesday evening at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee.
The Seminoles scored the only two runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning as they improved to 31-6 on the season. The Jags brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth inning, but a popup down the left field line ended the game. The Jags record falls to 27-11 on the season.
Bud Collura went 3-for-4 to lead the Jags at the plate, but they could not manufacture runs against the ‘noles. FSU’s Peter Miller pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings with four strikeouts and only one walk. Bobby Coles threw a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his eighth save of the year for FSU.
The Jaguars return to action this weekend at Eddie Stanky Field when they host Western Kentucky for a key Sun Belt Conference series. The Jags and the Hilltoppers are both atop the SBC Baseball standings.
Zaharion Named SBC Player Of The Week, FSU Game To Be Broadcast On ESPN3
South Alabama Jaguar outfielder Nick Zaharion was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week on Monday by conference officials. Zaharion hit .533 with three doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and five runs scored in the last four games including the weekend sweep of Arkansas State.
He reached base in each of the four games and recorded multiple hits in two of them. He also drove in multiple runs in three of the four games while tying a career high five RBI in Saturdays 20-2 win over ASU.
This is the second time Zaharion has been named the SBC PotW, previously it was on March 26 of last season.
For the season, he is batting .345 with three doubles, four home runs, 18 RBI and eight runs scored in nine Sun Belt games this season with a slugging percentage of .862.
It was also announced on Monday that the Jags game against #5 Florida State will be broadcast on ESPN3 from Tallahassee. First pitch is scheduled for 5pm Central at Dick HOwser Stadium. Along with ESPN3, the game will be broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
The South Alabama Jaguar baseball team swept their series against Arkansas State over the weekend by a combined score of 30-5. The Jags improve their record to 27-10 and 10-5 in SBC play. Arkansas State falls to 19-17 overall and 6-9 in SBC play.
Jarron Cito started for the Jags on Friday evening and earned the win behind a four-run fourth inning as the Jags won 6-2. City only allowed two runs on five hits through seven innings of work while striking out five with only one walk. Dylan Stamey struck out four while walking on in 1 2/3 innings of work to earn the second save of his career.
The Jags pounded ASU into submission on Saturday behind the pitching of Matt Bell. The Jags recorded 21 hits and scored in eight of the nine innings as they won 20-2.
Bell tied a career high in strikeouts with nine while only allowing two runs on five hits with one walk in another career high of eight innings of work.
South Alabama came within one hit of tying a season high for hits in a game. Nine different Jagaurs recorded hits with Jeff DeBlieux going 5-for-7 with two triples, three RBI and two runs scored. Nick Zaharion finished 4-for-5 with two doubles, two home runs, a career high five RBI and two runs scored.
Nolan Earley went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
In the final game of the weekend series, the Jags earned a 4-1 win behind Jacob Noble’s pitching. Noble allowed one unearned run on three hits in seven innings of work. He struck out five without giving up a walk to get his fourth win of the season and his first against a Sun Belt opponent.
Kyle Bartsch earned his eighth save of the season on one inning of work with two strikeouts. He tied former Jaguar Blaine Dollar for career saves at USA with the 18th of his career.
The Jags will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Tallahassee for a midweek game against Florida State.
The Jaguar baseball team is tied for first place in the conference with Western Kentucky with a 10-5 record each. FAU is second with a 9-5 record.
The Jags will host the Hilltoppers this weekend for a key three-game conference series.
Softball
The Jaguar softball team swept the Saturday doubleheader against North Texas. Blair Johnson hit her second game-winning home run of the season as she gave the Jags a walk-off 3-2 win over the Mean Green in the first game.
Hannah Campbell went the distance to earn her 17th win of the season. She allowed seven hits while striking out eight with only one walk in her seven innings of work. She allowed two runs, both unearned though.
THe Lady Jags earned their 11th mercy-rule win of the season when they defeated the Mean Green 12-1 in five innings in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader.
After the dramatics of the victory in the first game, the Jags burst out of the gate with nine hits and 11 runs in the first two innings of the game. Julie Moss hit her sixth home run of the season to give the Jags a 2-0 lead.
Farish Beard earned her 17th win of the season as well on 4 1/3 innings of work where she only allowed two hits and one run behind nine strikeouts and no walks. Jessica Dobson finished off the game with 2/3 of an inning of work where she allowed two hits, one run and a walk with one strikeout to wrap up the game.
The Sunday game was cancelled due to weather. The Jags record improved to 37-7 overall and 13-3 in Sun Belt play. North Texas fell to 18-19 overall and 6-9 in Sun Belt play on the season.
The Lady Jags continue to hold onto first place in the conference by one game in the win column. WKU is 12-3 on the season in Sun Belt play.
Busy Weekend In South Alabama Sports
The Jaguar baseball team will travel to Arkansas State for a weekend series while the Lady Jaguar Softball team will host North Texas. But that is not all going on this weekend in South Alabama sports.
The Men’s Tennis team will wrap up their regular season this weekend in Memphis, Tennessee as they face UAB and #46 Memphis. They enter this weekends matches with a 10-11 record overall after facing seven ranked opponents this season with wins over #30 BYU, #56 St. John’s and #60 Georgia State.
The women’s Tennis team will also wrap up their regular season this weekend at home against UAB. The matches will begin at 11am at the South Alabama Tennis courts.
Also the South Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams will hold their final home meet of the season on Friday and Saturday. They will welcome Alabama State, Loyola, North Alabama, Spring Hill, Tulane, West Alabama and West Florida to Jaguar Track for the South Alabama Invitational.
It will begin at 4:30pm on Friday and will start at 10am on Saturday morning with men’s javelin throw.
#23 USA Softball Blanks #25 Florida State
The South Alabama Jaguar softball team blanked the #25 ranked Florida State Seminoles 4-0 at Jaguar field on Wednesday evening. Farish Beard and Hannah Campbell combined for their sixth win-save of the season with Beard improving to 16-0 on the season while Hannah recorded her league leading sixth save of the season.
Beard struck out six with only two walks and three in the first four innings of the game. Hannah struck out four with only one hit and one walk in three innings of relief.
The win improves the Jags to 35-7 overall on the season as the Seminoles fells to 31-14 on the season. It was the first time FSU had been shut out in 31 games.
Senior Brittany Fowler got her 200th hit as a Jaguar in the game, she is tops in program history in hits.
The Jags will be in action again when they host North Texas this weekend at Jaguar Field in a three-game series. It will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday that will start at 1pm with the final game scheduled on Sunday at 11am.