McGill Earns Second SBC Pitcher of the Week Honor
Freshman right handed pitcher Kalen McGill earned her second Pitcher of the Week honor on May 4. She pitched two complete-game victories in Troy to clinch the final regular-season series. | Photo credit: usajaguars.com
The University of South Alabama Softball freshman right-handed pitcher Kalen McGill was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week in the season’s final weekly awards announced by the conference office on Monday.
Against Troy, McGill (16-2) had two complete-game victories over the weekend as USA clinched their fifth and final conference series of the regular season. She allowed no earned runs in 14 innings pitched while striking out 13 with one walk and 13 hits scattered, only one of which went for extra bases.
She had a season-high eight strikeouts in game two on Saturday to lead the Jags to split the doubleheader. McGill carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning in that game as well.
This is Kalen’s second honor of the year and the fifth weekly honor for a South Alabama Softball student-athlete.
The Sun Belt Conference Tournament starts on Wednesday in San Marcos, Texas with the Jaguars drawing the #2 seed.
Jag Baseball And Softball Win Weekend Sun Belt Series
Both Jaguars Baseball and Softball teams had successful weekends on the diamond. Below are highlights of the weekend.
Softball
The #22 ranked Jaguar softball team took two of three games from Troy over the weekend to clinch their final series of the regular season.
In game one, the Trojans scored five unanswered runs, including a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, to win 6-3.
USA took a two run lead in the top of the second inning. Chloe Rathburn scored when senior Blair Johnson doubled to right center and a subsequent throwing error in a throwout attempt at the plate. Johnson would later score when freshman Haleigh Lowe’s infield single.
The Trojans halved the Jaguar lead when she scored on Farish Beard’s wild pitch.
USA added another run to take a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth on a squeeze play off the bat of senior first baseman Amanda Herron which scored senior Gwen Jones, who pinch ran for Rathburn.
However, four runs in the bottom half of the fourth would put Troy ahead.
Beard suffered the loss to fall to 9-4 on the season after giving up five run, all earned, on seven hits with a walk in 3 2/3 innings pitched. Freshman righty Devin Brown threw 2 1/3 innings of relief allowing one run on one hit with a walk and five strikeouts.
Johnson led the Jaguars at the plate by going 2-of-3 with one run scored. Rathburn went 1-of-2 with a run scored as well.
In game two, the Jaguars stranded three base runners in the first two innings then went down in order in the next three innings. But Troy did not fare any better as only one player reached base in their first five innings facing the Jags pitching.
In the bottom of the sixth, Troy’s Heather Johnson led off the inning with a single through the left side, which was followed by Kayler reaching base on a bunt single, but Johnson was thrown out trying to stretch and make it to third base. Benton followed with a single up the middle but she would be thrown out at the plate by Amanda Minahan later in the innign on Becca hartley’s base hit to center field. McGill forced a groundout for the final out of the innings the Jags got out of the inning unscathed.
Rathburn led off the top of the seventh with a double off the left field wall. Kaitlyn Griffith then smashed the go-ahead two-run homer, her 12th of the season and a new South Alabama season record.
McGill retired the Trojans in order to finish off the game.
In the third game on Sunday, Troy would take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after Kate Benton led off the game with an infield single. She could eventually score on a play in which Emily Messer overthrew Amanda Herron at first allowing the ball to go down the right field line.
USA would tie the game in the top of the second after Griffith drew a leadoff walk and scored on Herron’s double to right field.
The Jags added two more runs in the top of the fourth after Herron drew a one-out walk, Gwen Jones would come in to pinch run for her. Minahan followed with a single and advanced to second base on a throw to home plate to put to Jags in scoring position. Lowe would ground out to second to score Jones. Messer would follow with an infield base hit to score Minahan putting USA up 3-1.
McGill would work herself way out of two separate situations in the next two innings.
USA would add an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning after Blair Johnson reached on a leadoff due to a Trojan fielding error. She would score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Minahan for a 4-1 lead, which would be the final score as well.
Freshman righty Kalen McGill (16-2) recorded her second complete-game win of the series by only allowing one unearned run while scattering nine hits and striking out five with only one walk.
Stephanie Pilkington went 2-for-4 in the game. Herron went 2-for-3 with an RBI, Messer went 1-for-3 with an RBI and Minahan also went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
USA ends the regular season with a 35-10 record overall and a 16-4 record in Sun Belt Conference play.
South Alabama will be the #2 seed in the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tournament which takes place May 6-9 in San Marcos, Texas.
Baseball
South Alabama swept their second-consecutive Sun Belt Conference series with their weekend sweep of Georgia Southern.
Jag righty Kevin Hill struck out 12 batters in his second consecutive complete game as USA won 7-1 in the series opener. Hill only allowed one run on five hits with two walks to go along with his 12 strikeouts for his eighth consecutive win.
In game two the Jags entered the sixth inning facing a three-run deficit but after 14 batters went to the plate and eight runs pushed across the plate, the Jags would take the lead and not relinquish it the rest of the game.
Jag lefty Joey Jones (1-0) walked two in 2/3 of an inning to earn his first career win at USA.
In game three, the Jags scored multiple runs in four different innings for an 11-4 win to complete the sweep. The Jags (32-17, 17-7 SBC) had 13 hits in the game.
With the weekend sweep, USA moves into first place in the conference ahead of Georgia State (27-20, 14-8 SBC), UL-Lafayette (30-17, 14-9 SBC) and Georgia Southern (27-21, 16-11 SBC).
Softball And Baseball Both On Road For SBC Series
Softball
The #22 ranked South Alabama Softball team will travel to Troy this weekend for their final series of the 2015 regular season. The Jags and the Troy Trojans will play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first game starting at 1pm then the finale on Sunday beginning at 1pm as well.
Next up for the Jaguars will be the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tournament which begins on Wednesday, May 6 and will conclude on Saturday, May 9 in San Marcos, Texas.
The Jaguars (33-9, 14-3 SBC) currently sit in second place in the conference behind UL-Lafayette (34-8, 17-3 SBC) who are in the midst of a three game skid. But in third place is Troy (31-20, 13-7 SBC) who have won their last two game.
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team will travel to Georgia Southern, who are second place in the conference, after sweeping the top team in the conference at home last weekend in Georgia State and have won their last four SBC games and six of the last seven conference games.
USA (29-17, 14-7 SBC) is in third place in the conference and looking to move up the standings. They are coming off of a loss in a 17 inning game against Southern Miss on Wednesday.
The series will begin this afternoon at 5pm, Saturday’s game will begin at 1pm and the series finale is scheduled for noon on Sunday. All times are Central time. Additionally all three games will be streamed live on ESPN3 as well as being broadcast on WNTM 710 AM in Mobile and on the iHeartRadio app.
National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association National Pitcher of the Week Kevin Hill will start the series opener. He pitched a one-hit shutout complete game in last weeks series opener. Georgia Southern will counter with lefty Evan Challenger (5-0) who has a 1.06 ERA with 50 strikeouts, 14 walks in 59 1/3 innings pitched.
USA will also start righty Austin Bembnowski (2-3) in game two and lefty Jared Gates (4-2) on Sunday.
Kelley Selected As Member Of National Football Foundation Hampshire Society
Kelley had a career best 56 tackles and five sacks in 2014 to lead the defense. Along with his 3.42 GPA entering the spring semester, Kelley was selected as a 2015 member of the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society. | Photo credit: usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Jesse Kelley was selected as a member of the 2015 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society on Wednesday. A total of 817 student-athletes from 278 schools qualified for membership in the society in its ninth year of existence, which sets a new record for the number of schools represented in the history of the program since it began in 2007.
In order to qualify for membership, one must be a starter or significant contributor in one’s last year of eligibility (or a senior who has declared for the NFL Draft) at an NCAA FBS, FCS, Division II, Division III or NAIA college or university; achieve a 3.2 cumulative GPA throughout their entire course of undergraduate study; and meeting all NCAA/NAIA-mandated progress towards their degree requirements.
Kelley will earn his degree from USA in less than two weeks as a meteorology major with a minor in geology with a 3.42 GPA entering his final semester. Earlier this week he was presented with the “Jim Yance Heart of a Jaguar Award” at the Pete Tolbert Night of Champions. The senior was a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District selection in the fall as a defensive lineman and has been a member of the Sun Belt Conference Commissioners List each of the last two years.
Kelley helped the Jaguars earn a berth in the program’s first-ever postseason bowl game against Bowling Green in the inaugural Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in December. He earned honorable mention All-Conference accolades in 2014 after leading the defense with a career-best 56 total stops and five sacks. He equaled his previous high with 6.5 tackles for loss and also broke up two passes. In 42 games over five seasons he earned three letters while recording 116 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks.