South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team will face Texas State for the first time on the baseball diamond this weekend starting tonight at 6:30pm in San Marcos, Texas.
The Jags are in the midst of a five game losing streak and carries a 13-15 record into the game. They lost midweek games against Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. Though the Jaguars lead the conference in sacrifice bunts, they are last in the conference in hits, runs scored, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total bases, doubles and home runs.
Texas State is 17-11 overall and 6-3 in conference play this season. They have won two of their last five games. They are batting .247 as a team with a staff ERA of 3.70.
Starting for the Jaguars in game one is Locke St. John (3-1). Kevin Hill (2-3) will start game two and the Jags have not announced a starter for the series finale on Sunday.
Texas State is currently third in the conference while the Jags are sitting eighth out of ten schools.
All of the games can be heard on 105.5FM WNSP or WNSP.com online. Saturday’s game will start at 3pm and Sunday will get underway at 1pm.
Softball
The Jaguar softball team will also be in San Marcos, Texas for a three game Sun Belt Conference series against the Bobcats.
They will play a double-header on Saturday with their first game set for 1pm and the second scheduled for 3pm. They will wrap up the series on Sunday beginning at 11am.
Read more
Williamson Named SBC Women’s Field Athlete Of The Week
South Alabama’s Bobbie Williamson was named the Sun Belt Conference Women’s field athlete of the week on Wednesday by the Sun Belt office.
Williamson had a career-high throw in the women’s hammer throw with a toss of 59.53m in her first attempt in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas last week. That put her in fifth place out of 23 individuals and ranks second all-time in the Jaguar record books.
She is the reigning conference champion and currently sits on top of the conference rankings in the event. She also rated fifth in the NCAA Division I East Region and 15th in the nation.
She has finished in the top five in each of the four Jaguars outdoor meeting this season.
USA Softball Win Streak Snapped By #4 Alabama 3-0
The Jaguar softball team had their 13-game winning streak and their 17-game road winning streak broken on Wednesday evening by #4 ranked Alabama by a score of 3-0.
South Alabama matched the Crimson Tide in hits and Farish Beard pitched five innings of shutout ball, but the bottom of the second inning saw them put up three runs which the Jaguars could not muster a response.
In the top of the second, Amanda Herron reached base on a fielding error by the Tide’s shortstop. Alex Breeden followed with USA’s first hit of the game, a two-out single through the left side of the infield. Then the pitch would get by the catcher to allow the runners to advance to second and thir, but Taylor Rodger’s would line out end the inning.
In the bottom of the second, UA’s Andrea Hawkins would drop a double in left field just over Kaitlyn Griffith’s head which allowed Leona Lafaele who reached on an error, Jackie Traina who was hit by a pitch and Haylie McCleney who was walked to all score.
The Jags had another chance in the top of the fifth with runners on second and third, but they could not get another hit to drive them across the plate.
Beard (16-2) pitched six innings and allowed five hits and three runs, all unearned, with four strikeouts and a walk for the Jaguars.
Sydney Littlejohn pitched four innings and allowed three hits with two strikeouts and no walks to pick up the win. Jaclyn Traina pitched three innings and allowed two hits whiel striking out four with no walks to pick up her second save of the season.
Beard’s NCAA-leading ERA fell to 0.40 in the loss.
South Alabama will look travel to San Marcos, Texas for a three game weekend series against the Bobcats. They will play a double-header on Saturday with games at 1pm and 3pm with Sunday’s game set to start at 11am.
USA Baseball Falls To Southern Miss 3-1
The Jaguar baseball team dropped their second game in as many days when they fell at home to Southern Miss 3-1 Wednesday evening.
With the Jaguars leading 1-0 in the top of the eighth, USM put two runners on base with no outs after a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt was mishandled by the pitcher Jared Gates. A bunt attempt to move both runners into scoring position resulted in the first baseman Cole Gleason’s throw sailing wide of first base to allow both runners to score for the Golden Eagles to take a 2-1 lead. A sacrifice fly to center would score the other runner for the 3-1 margin.
Gates (1-3) sufferred the loss after going seven innings, allowing two unearned runs on three hits with a career-high seven strikeouts and a pair of walks.
The Jags will travel to San Marcos, Texas for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series against Texas State where they hope to break their five game losing skid.
Friday night’s game will get underway at 6:30pm, Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3pm and Sunday’s game is scheduled for 1pm. All of the games can be heard on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
USA and Troy To Play In Nationally Televised Game This Fall
The South Alabama football team will get more national exposure this fall as the Sun Belt Conference announced a change in the television schedule on Tuesday.
The Jags will host Troy on Friday, October 24 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in a Sun Belt Conference game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
Previously the only other USA game to be broadcast nationally was the Jaguars game against Navy last fall which was carried on the CBS Sports Network. They have had a number of games carried regionally on the SEC Network and on CSS.
In their first season as a full FBS member and eligible for a bowl game and conference championship, the Jags finished 6-6 and 4-3 in conference play. They finished third in the conference after knocking off co-champion Louisiana-Lafayette 30-8 to get bowl eligible. However the Jags were not selected for a post-season bowl game.
The Jags vs Troy game will be one of two Friday night games for the Jaguars this season, both will be played on the field at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The other is against Navy in the regular-season finale on November 28. Kickoff time has not been scheduled for that game and it may be available on ESPN3.
“The opportunity to play, especially a home game, against an in-state rival on a national stage is priceless,” South Alabama Director of Athletics Joel Erdmann said. “In 2013 we received an extraordinary amount of exposure and feedback concerning playing on the SEC Network against Tennessee. Playing on the ESPN family of networks will increase that.”
“Having the ability to experience that exposure not only helps the football program, but every other sports program that we have and provides exposure of the University of South Alabama and the City of Mobile.”
USA Softball Moves Up In Polls, Takes on #4 Alabama This Evening
South Alabama’s Softball team is starting to draw more national attention. Coming off of back-to-back Sun Belt Conference Championships they had high expectations for 2014 and they have not disappointed.
In the midst of a 13 game winning streak they have climbed to #11 in both the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25 poll and the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll.
Earlier in the week Hannah Campbell became the first Jaguar female to be drafted professionally when she was selected third overall in the National Pro Fastpitch Draft. Then she and Farish Beard were both featured in an ESPNW.com article about South Alabama’s softball program and how it’s built on local players. (You can read it here.)
The Jaguars will have a big opportunity to make a big jump in the polls and to knock off the top ranked program in the state when they travel to #4 ranked University of Alabama this evening.
The Jags (29-3, 7-0 SBC) puts their 13-game win streak, 17-game road win streak and best-ever poll ranking on the line against Alabama (31-5, 11-1 SEC). USA enters with the best overall ERA in the nation and the highest ranking in program history, but the Tide lead the all-time series 8-0. Last season the Crimson Tide defeated the Jags 4-0 to snap the Jaguars 12-game winning streak.
USA has defeated then #17 ranked Georgia and then #21 ranked LSU this season to hold a 2-0 record against SEC opponents.
The Jags and the Tide get underway at 6pm in Tuscaloosa in what could very well be one of the best games of the season. The game can be heard through Jaguar All-Access.
Pilkington Named SBC Player of the Week
Sophomore Stephanie Pilkington batted .545 with six runs scored last week to help the Jags go 4-0 in their four games. | Photo by: usajaguars.com
Stephanie Pilkington was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week for her play over the past week.
The Jags went 4-0 last week in their games with the help of Pilkington’s .545 batting average (6-for-11), six runs scored and an RBI. She had a slugging percentage of .545, an on-base percentage of .667 as well. She has regained the team lead in batting average with a .354 mark. She also has a seven-game on-base streak.
The Sophomore is a native of Lake City, Florida and is the second Jaguar to be named SBC Player of the Week. Out of the eight voting periods this season, a Jaguar has been honored five times. Blair Johnson was named SBC Player of the Week on February 24 and Farish Beard was named SBC Pitcher of the Week three times in the first five weeks of the season.
This is Pilkington’s first SBC Weekly awards honor.
Red Team Dominates South Alabama’s Spring Football Game
South Alabama held their spring football game on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Brandon Bridge threw for 114 yards and a touchdown while Xavier Johnson rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown as the Red team defeated the Blue team 38-0.
Bridge completed 7-of-10 with three completions going for 25 yards or more including a 31 yard touchdown pass to Jereme Jones less than three minutes into the game.
ON the next drive, Bridge found Terrance Timmons in the right flat for a 35 yard gain to the Blue one-yard line. Johnson would score on the next play.
Johnson reeled off a 28 yard run on the teams second possession of the game.
Trey Fetner hit Timmons for a 19-yard gain to set up Kendall Houston’s four-yard touchdown. Houston rushed for 41 yards on six attempts as the Red team held a 241-3 yard rushing advantage and outgained the Blue team 405-77 overall.
Timmons led the Red team with four catches for 59 yards while Marvin Shinn caught four passes for 35 yards.
The Red defense was led by Maleki Harris with seven tackles. Jerome McClain added three himself and Roman Buchanan and Jesse Kelley both had two each. Jaylan Daniels had five tackles with three sacks on the day.
Berren Tyson rushed for 69 yards on seven carries. Brett Sheehan completed 5-of-11 passes for 58 yards to lead the blue team. David Kelley had three catches for 35 yards to lead the Blue teams. T’Quan Robinson had a game-high seven tackles for blue with Antonio London and Terrance Slaughter each adding five tackles. Raymone Wiggins came away with the only takeaway of the day for either team when an interception in the end zone to end the Red teams’ first possession of the second half.
“I think we achieved what we wanted to today,” said head coach Joey Jones. “We got a bunch of people in the game, after the first half we took a lot of guys out, even after the first quarter some of the starters were out. Our goal was to get everybody on the field and get a lot of reps to evaluate them, and I think we did that today.”
“I thought Brandon threw the ball real well, he had a couple of touchdowns that were dropped,” Jones continued. “Xavier ran the football really well, he has shown up this spring. And it looked like Desmond LaVelle made a lot of tackles.”
The spring game was not the final practice for the Jaguar football team, They have one week of practice left during the spring season. They will have three sessions this week culminating with a final scrimmage on Saturday at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus.
“We want to work on some of our opponents for next year, and there are two areas we need to work on a little bit more: goal-line, short-yardage situations and no-huddle, fast-tempo stuff on offense and defense,” coach Jones said of the upcoming week. “We want to get those guys working against each other at least two more practices.”
USA Baseball To Face SLU Tonight
USA Baseball will begin a five-game road trip over a six day span starting this evening when they face Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La. for a 6pm game.
They will then return home to host Southern Miss on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm. Then they will have a day off before facing Texas State in San Marcos, TX for a three game series starting on Friday.
USA will start right-hander Matt Bell (2-3, 6.15) to start against SLU. USA will face Kyle Cedotal (0-1, 1.50).
The game can be heard on 105.5FM WNSP and WNSP.com online.
USA Softball’s Campbell Selected Third Overall In NFP Draft
Hannah Campbell, selected third overall in the 2014 National Pro Fastpitch Draft on Monday. She is the first Jaguar student-athlete and first female in school history to be drafted professionally. | usajaguars.com
South Alabama senior pitcher Hannah Campbell has blazed a trail since she stepped onto campus. She blazed a new one Monday afternoon when she became the first softball student-athlete and the first female in school history to be drafted professionally when she was selected third overall by the Akron (Ohio) Racers in the 2014 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Draft.
The Satsuma native has a 76-30 record in her three-and-a-half years at South Alabama with a career ERA of 1.66. She was the first Jaguar to ever be selected as an All-American when the National Fastpitch Coaches Association selected her for second-team honors.
She is also a three-time NFCA All-South Region selection and back-to-back Most Oustanding PLayer of the SBC Tournament in 2012 and 2013. She has thrown two perfect games in her career at USA, the only two in school history, and was named to USA Softball’s Top-50 “Watch List” for collegiate Player of the Year award.
She currently holds a number of USA Softball records including: Wins (76), Saves (15), Complete games (85), Shutouts (26), Strikeouts looking (162), and Fewest Walks Allowed per 7 Innings (1.28).
The Akron Racers finished third in the four-team NPF league last season with a 16-32 record. They are the oldest existing team in the league and are headquartered in Akron, Ohio. They competed in the Women’s Pro Softball League (WPSL) for two seasons in 1999 and 2000 and has been part of the NPF since 2004.
Head coach Becky Clark said, “If you look at her body of work from the time that she’s been here, it’s incredibly impressive. For us to come in as quickly as we did into a conference that has such a powerhouse in Louisiana-Lafayette and for Hannah to be the pitcher on the mound that breaks their streak of Sun Belt Conference championships is phenomenal.”
“Her no-hitter last season against ULL was the crux of the [2013 Sun Belt Conference] tournament,” Clark continued. “She’s worked incredibly hard for all of this. She’s not scared to compete. She’s a great teammate, she has a great mental game and she wants to be the best at what she does.”
Congratulations Hannah! Not only is JagNation proud of you, but all of Mobile is proud of you!