USA Sports go 8-1 In Weekend Games
South Alabama had a successful weekend slate of home games this past weekend by going 8-1 in all four sports played on campus this weekend.
Men’s Basketball
The Jaguar men’s basketball team used a fast start to hold on against Texas-Arlington 97-91. USA held a 20-point lead at halftime but the Mavericks outscored the Jags 62-48 in the second half, as the Jags committed 14 of their 20 turnovers in the second half, but were unable to overcome the deficit.
The Jags improve their overall record to 9-17 and their conference record to 7-8. Texas-Arlington fell to 14-10 overall and 8-6 in conference play.
Sophomore Ken Williams led all scorers with a career-high 29 points with a personal best eight rebounds. He connected on six of 10 three-point attempts, five of them made in the first half. He was also 9-of-11 from the free-throw line.
They travel to Georgia State on Thursday to take on the Panthers for a 6pm tip.
Softball
The #24 ranked Lady Jaguars completed a four-game sweep of the Mardi Gras Invitational.
The weekend began on Friday with a 5-4 win over Oklahoma State. The game was decided in the bottom of the seventh when Stephanie Pilkington drew a bases-loaded walk to end the game.
On Saturday, the Jags scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first and third innings then were able to cruise to the 4-1 win over Lipscomb. Freshman Kalen McGill earned her second win of the season (2-0) where the recorded three strikeouts an no walks. She only allowed a single earned run on four hits with her ERA holding at 0.51.
Sophomore Chloe Rathburn led the Jags on Saturday by going 4-for-6 with a pair of runs and RBI and recorded her first home run of the season against Lipscomb, which put the Jags up 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning.
Senior left fielder Blair Johnson and junior third baseman Emily Messer both went 3-of-7 and combined for three RBI and two runs scored.
The Jags second game of the day on Saturday was a 9-4 win over Butler. The game saw freshman Devin Brown improve to 3-1 on the season after striking out eight batters and walking five. She allowed four runs, all earned, on three hits in four innings against Butler, raising her ERA to 2.30 on the season so far.
Brown’s eight strikeouts puts her total at 46 strikeouts in six appearances this season and places her ninth all-time in the category at USA.
USA scored six runs in the bottom of the second inning after Kaitlyn Griffith and Amanda Herron both drew walks. After a pitching change, the Butler reliever walked senior Alyssa LInn to load the bases.
Freshman second baseman Kaleigh Todd lined out, but Emily Messer drove in a pair on a double to center field. Then Amanda Minahan followed with another two-run double to push the Jaguar lead to 4-0. Pilkington drew a walk then Rathburn singled off the pitcher to load the bases again. Minahan scored on a wild pitch. Griffith, batting for the second time in the inning, singled to drive in Pilkington from third base to complete the scoring for the inning.
In the top of the third, Butler scored a pair of runs but the Jags answered back in the bottom of the fourth on Blair Johnson’s RBI double which scored pinch runner Gwen Jones.
Again the Bulldogs answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth to cut the Jaguar lead to 7-4.
But again the Jags answered back with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth for the final tally of 9-4.
The Jags finished off the weekend with a run-rule win over Evansville 10-2. Brown picked up her fourth win of the season. Amanda Minahan went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI in the win. Rathburn also went 2-for-4 with one run scored and two RBI. Amanda Herron went 2-of-3 with two runs scored and three RBI. Freshman Kristian Foster went 2-for-2 with a run scored in her first career collegiate start.
Amanda Minahan earned the MVP award for the weekend by going 5-of-15 (.333) with six RBI, five runs scored, a home run, an .800 slugging percentage and a .412 on-base percentage.
Also making the All-Tournament team from USA was: Pitchers Kalen McGill and Devin Brown, OF Amanada Minahan, and OF Stephanie Pilkington.
USA travels to Nicholls State on Tuesday before returning home to host the South Alabama Invitational beginning Friday, February 20.
Baseball
The Jags baseball season got their season underway with a three-game sweek of UNO. USA won 7-3, 8-2 and 8-6.
The Jags host Auburn University on Tuesday at Eddie Stanky Field with first-pitch scheduled for 6:30pm.
Women’s Basketball
The Lady Jags dropped their fifth consecutive game after falling at home to Texas-Arlington 46-63. The lady Jags will look to break that streak on Thursday against Georgia State in Atlanta.