Jags Weekend Review
Jags baseball complete a weekend sweep of first-place Georgia State while softball team split a pair of games with North Dakota State. Here’s the rundown.
Softball
The #21 ranked Jaguar softball team split a pair of games against North Dakota State over the weekend after the first of a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday was cancelled due to weather conditions.
On Friday night the Jags dropped a 7-3 decision to the Bison at Jaguar Field. In the opening inning both teams traded a pair of runs. Then the Bison pushed across a run in the top of the third inning to take a 3-2 lead over the Jaguars.
Then in the top of the fifth inning Amanda Minahan tied the game with her fifth home run of the season. But in the top sixth inning the Bison would score four runs to take control of the game.
Farish Beard suffered the loss to fall to 8-3 on the season after allowing seven runs (all earned) on six hits in five innings with eight strikeouts. Kalen McGill threw two innings of scoreless relief and only allowed on hit.
Emily Messer and Stephanie Pilkington each went 2-for-4 with Messer scoring the first run of the game and Pilkington had an RBI.
Chloe Rathburn was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
The lone game on Saturday was weather-delayed and cancelled one of the two that was scheduled for the day.
The Bison took the lead in the top of the first inning when they pushed three runs across. The Jags answered in the bottom half of the inning with two runs when Rathburn and Amanda Herron each drew bases-loaded walks.
In the bottom of the second inning the Jags tied the game at 3-each after Messer got on base with a one-out infield single followed by Kaitlyn Griffith’s RBI single through the left side of the infield.
The Bison regained the lead on a solo homer in the top of the third inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Griffith drew a one-out walk followed by Chloe Rathburn’s homer to put the Jags on top 5-4. Later in the inning Blair Johnson picked up an RBI by driving Minahan in with a single to right field to extend their lead to 6-4.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Bison tied the game up again with a two-run homer. The Jags went down in order in the bottom of the sevening sending the game to extra innings.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Jags loaded the bases when the Bison intentionally walked Messer. Haleigh Foster came in to pinch hit and ended up walking in the game-winnign run for the Jaguars.
Messer finished the game going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Johnson went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Griffith finsihed 1-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI.
Farish Beard (9-3) got the win in 5 2/3 innings of relief and allowed a pair of runs (both earned) on three hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
The Jags (33-9) will travel to Troy for the final regular season Sun Belt Conference series of the season ahead of the Sun Belt Conference Championships to be held in San Marcos, TX.
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team completed a three-game weekend sweep of Conference leading Georgia state.
In game one Kevin Hill carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning and struck out a career high 15 batters in a complete-game 8-0 win over the Panthers. The no-hitter was broken up in the top of the ninth when Ryan Blanton singled to shallow left-center field jsut out of reach of Jaguar shortstop Ryan Raspino. It was Hill’s seventh consecutive win
In the second game the Jags needed extra innings to knock off the Panthers, but Cole Billingsley walk-off RBI single to left-center field sealed the game in the bottom of the 11th inning for the 2-1 win.
The Jags leaded the bases in the bottom of the 11th inning after a leadoff single by Cameron Cummings, one-out single by Garrett DeGallier, a walk by Adam Ballew. THen Ryan Raspino drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game at 1-each. Billingsley then hit the first pitch he saw to plate DeGallier for the game-winning run.
Ben Taylor (5-1) earned the win in two relief innings as he allowed one run on one hit and four strikeouts.
The Sunday finale completed the sweep for the Jaguars after USA erupted with a seven-run third inning and quality pitching from Jared Gates as the Jags won 7-2.
Gates tied a career high with nine strikeouts while walking two and allowing three hits and two runs in 7 2/3 innings pitched.
The Jags improve to 29-16 overall and 14-7 in conference play while the Panthers fall to 26-18 overall and 13-6 in conference play. The weekend series saw USA hold on to third place in the conference behind Georgia Southern (16-8 SBC record) and ahead UL-Lafayette (13-7) and Troy (13-8).
The Jags will travel to Hattiesburg for a midweek game against the Golden Eagles before travelling to Stateboro, Georgia for a three-game weekend series against the 2nd place Eagles.