Jags Defeat Mississippi State in Walk-Off Fashion in Extra Innings
The University of South Alabama baseball team toppled their third SEC opponent Tuesday night on a walk-off double in the bottom of the 11th inning to win 8-7.
The Jaguars fell behind 5-0 after the top half of the first inning. But they answered with two runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Cole Billingsley reached on an infield bunt to first base. He stole second and would later score on a two-out RBI single by Danny Martinez. A fielding error on a ball hit up the box by Cole Gleason allowed Jared Barnes, who reached base on a two-out walk, to score from second base to cut the Bulldog lead to 5-2. Adam Ballew drew a walk to load the bases, but a strikeout ended the inning without any more damage by the Jags.
USA tied the game in the bottom of the second inning after Ryan Raspino leadoff with a single. Later in the inning Matt Bolger hit a two-run triple to right-center field to cut the deficit to just one run. Barnes would groundout to second base but would plate Bolger to tie the game at 5-each.
The Bulldogs would retake the lead on a two-out two-run homer in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the fifth the Jags would tie the game again on a one-out, two run homer by Benn Gann, the first of his Jaguar career.
In the top of the ninth, the Bulldogs loaded the bases on three-consecutive one-out singles, but Jaguar righty Ben Taylor struck out the next batter then induced an inning-ending groundout to short.
The Bulldogs threatened again in the top of the 10th after a leadoff single by Brown and moving to second base on a sacrifice bunt. The Jags intentionally walked Gavin Collins to pitch to Humphreys, which grounded into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the 11th, Cameron Cummings and Adam Ballew drew back-to-back one-out walks. Then Gann smashed an 0-1 pitch to left-center field to score Cummings for the game winner.
Cody Van Aken threw two scoreless innings in relief to earn his second win of the season. He struck out two and issued only one walk. The Jags record improves to 19-10 while the Bulldogs fall to 19-12.
Gann went 2-for-6 with a double, a home run and a career high three RBI and one run scored to lead the Jags at the plate. Bolger finished 2-for-6 with a double, a triple, two RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. Barnes hit a double, an RBI and a run scored. Billingsley had a pair of hits with a run scored and a stolen base.
South Alabama will face Jackson State on Wednesday at Eddie Stanky Field with first pitch scheduled for 6:30pm.
Tuesday Night Has a Pair of Big Games For Jaguars Baseball, Softball
Tuesday night is a big night of sports for South Alabama.
The Jaguar baseball team (15-9) will host the University of Alabama (13-9) for a 6:30pm game at Eddie Stanky Field. UA holds a 56-48 all-time lead in the series which started in 1967 but they have not met since April 3, 2012 at Eddie Stanky Field and they have won the last three meetings between the two teams. The last win was in 2011 in former head coach Steve Kittrell’s final season at the helm.
The Jaguar softball team will face #1 ranked LSU in Baton Rouge. The Jags (21-6) is 0-2 all-time against top-ranked opponents after falling 4-0 to then #1 Alabama in 2013 and 13-0 in five innings against #1 Florida in 2009.
LSU leads the Jaguars in their all-time series 6-2. USA and LSU split two games in Baton Rouge last year though.
The Tigers are 23-0 at home this season and 30-1 on the season.
Farish Beard Earns Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week
The right-handed senior from Fairhope, AL went 3-0 this week with a win over Southern Miss and a pair of wins against conference foe Appalachian State to earn Pitcher of the Week honors. | Photo usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Farish Beard was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week after recording three wins over that time period the Conference office announced on Monday.
Beard, who just returned to the lineup from an injury that had her resting for several weeks, went 3-0 with a pair of wins over conference opponent Appalachian State over the weekend and a non-conference win over Conference USA’s Southern Miss midweek.
She struck out 21 batters to four walks and only one earned run on nine hits in 18 innings pitched. She allowed only two hits to the Golden Eagles on Wednesday and Appalachian State in game one of a Saturday doubleheader. She had a no-hitter going against the Mountaineers until the fourth inning when they got a pair of hits. She responded by retiring six of the final seven batters faced.
Currently Beard is ranked second in the NCAA in hits allowed per seven inning (2.68), third in the nation in ERA (0.41), she leads the SBC in ERA, fewest hits allowed (13), fewest runs allowed (4), fewest earned runs allowed (2) and is tied for the conference lead in fewest home runs allowed (1). She also ranks second in the conference in opposing batting average (.120) and third in fewest walks allowed (10).
Out of seven voting periods this year, the Jaguars have had a honoree four times. Freshman Devin Brown was selected pitcher of the week on February 9 and March 2 and senior shortstop Kaitlyn Griffith was named Player of the Week on February 23.
South Alabama Opens Spring Practice Today
Head coach Joey Jones speaks to his team after their first scrimmage of preseason camp at St. Paul’s Episcopal School on Saturday, August 15, 2014.
The South Alabama Jaguar football team opens spring practice on Monday. It was their first time back on the field after their first-ever postseason bowl appearance.
The Jags will work our in helmets and shorts at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus from 3-5pm. They will also have a session on Wednesday without pads.
Each Friday during spring practices (March 20, 27 and April 3) as well as Monday April 6 to start the final week of drills. The Jags first workout in full pads is scheduled for Saturday, March 21 at 9am. Other full pads workouts are scheduled for March 23, 25, 30 and April 1.
Two scrimmages are set for the two Saturdays (3pm March 28, 9am April 4 at Murphy HS) prior to the annual Red-Blue spring game.
Each weekday practice will begin at 3pm with all 15 dates open to the general public.
The Red-Blue game is scheduled for noon on Saturday, April 11 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and is the first of several sporting events that day. The nationally ranked Jaguar softball team will play a double-header against Georgia Southern then at 6:30pm the Jaguar baseball team will host Appalachian State.
During the spring, the Jaguars will look to identify student-athletes to begin filling the spots left by 17 senior starters who graduated after last season. An influx of several players from UAB will help bolster the roster with experienced student-athletes including the starting quarterback from the Blazers.
USA lost 32 seniors from last fall’s team that faced Bowling Green in the inaugural Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. Just seven starters return from that team.
Jags Announcing Hiring of Tracy Buckhannon to Football Staff
Tracy Buckhannon joins the South Alabama staff from Colquitt County (GA) High School where he served as defensive coordinator for the last two seasons. | Photo: moultrieobserver.com
On Sunday the University of South Alabama officially announced the hiring of Tracy Buckhannon as an assistant coach to fill the position left when Freddie Roach left for a position at Alabama. Buckhannon will coach the inside linebackers.
Buckhannon has 15 years experience coaching at the high-school level. He has worked with Jaguar defensive coordinator Travis Pearson previously on the high school level and understands his system.
For the last three seasons Buckhannon has been an assistant coach at Colquitt County (GA.) High school and has served as defensive coordinator the last two seasons. Last fall he helped the team win the 6A state championship with a 14-0 record. In his first season as defensive coordinator the team advanced to the semifinals of the state playoffs before falling to the eventual champion. He began his stint at Colquitt in 2012 by coaching the safeties.
Previous to Colquitt County, he was a defensive coordinator at Elmore County (AL) High School for the previous seven years. He helped the Panthers get to the state 4A playoffs five times during that stretch including advancing to the quarterfinals in 2006, which began a three-year stretch where the team went 28-9 which was capped off with a 7-0 run to the regional title in 2008.
In the 2007 season the defense allowed less than 14 points per game and the following fall Buckhannon was selected the Alabama Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year.
Buckhannon was a member of the ECHS staff from 1995-1996 as a volunteer assistant in charge of both the offensive and defensive scout teams. He was a full time assistant at the school from 2001-2003 working with the linebackers as well as with Coach Pearson.
He was a 5-year letterwinner at Elmore County from 1987-1991 where he was part of the a team that won the state 4A championship in his first year with the varsity team. He earned all-county honors as a junior and would earn his bachelor’s degree from Auburn.
With the hiring of Buckhannon, coach Mike Adams’ responsibilities will shift to working with the defensive ends and outside linebackers.
Tyler Klava Finished Ninth Individually as USA Men’s Golf Finishes 4th At Auburn
Photo: Mike Kittrell al.com
Jaguar Men’s Golfer Tyler Klava equaled his best finish this season while helping the Jaguars finish fourth at the Auburn Tiger Invitational presented by Jason Dufner.
The redshirt senior posted an even-par 72 in the last three rounds for a 54-hole total of 3-under-par, his lowest total of the season by four strokes, to tie for ninth individually. This is his second time in the last three events he has finished in the top-10.
Auburn won the team title with a 25-under-par score of 839 and finished 22 strokes ahead of Troy who finished second. Georgia State finished third place with an 873 total. The Jaguars finished three-strokes behind with total of 876.
Williams, Hall Earn All-SBC Postseason Honors
A pair of South Alabama student-athletes were named to the All-Sun Belt teams on Tuesday. Ken Williams and Breanna Hall were both selected to All-Sun Belt Teams.
Ken Williams was voted to the All-SBC Men’s Basketball Second Team, his first all-conference honor in his career. He ranks seventh in the conference in scoring with 15.9 ppg, second in 3-pointers per game with 2.6, eighth in 3-point percentage with a .371 average, and eighth in free-throw percentage with .794. He averaged 18 points and 2.8 3-pointers per game which ranked second and first in the conference respectively.
His current total of 82 triples is seventh best at USA in a single season and a record for a sophomore. He is four points away from becoming the 21st player in school history to score 500 points in a season.
Williams scored 20 or more points 10 times this season, including a stretch of four consecutive with at least 23 points. He also make multiple three-pointers in 24 of his 31 games this season.
The South Alabama Men’s Team will face Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 7:30pm in New Orleans. The game will be aired on ESPN3.
Hall was named to the Third-Team All-SBC on Tuesday for her first postseason honor. She earned preseason All-Conference honors earlier this year.
She ended the regular season ranked fifth in the conference in scoring with 15.4 ppg. She accounted for 416 points this season, the first Jaguar to top the 400-point mark since 2008-09 season. Hall led the conference in 3-point shooting with a 40.8% mark and was among the national leaders in that category. Her 2.4 triples per game were second most in the conference this season.
She ranked third in free throw shooting by converting 82% of her attempts.
Jags Earn SBC Tournament Spot with 81-76 Win over Arkansas State
The Jaguar men’s basketball team controlled their own post-season destiny as they traveled to Jonesboro, AR. for their Thursday night game against Arkansas State and they held on down the stretch to earn their way in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The Jags (10-20, 8-11 SBC) saw a 24-point second-half lead slip away in the final minutes but thanks to sophomore Ken Williams leading a late charge, the Jags held on for the 81-76 win.
Over a span of 8:17, the Jags were outscored 29-7 including 15-2 at the end of the run to tie the game at 73-73 with under three minutes left in the game led by Anthony Livingston scoring six of the final 10 points of their run.
Williams answered back with on the next possession with a 3-pointer from the corner to break the tie. After a turnover, Williams added a layup to stretch the Jaguar lead to 78-73 with 2:11 remaining.
ASU (11-17, 6-13 SBC) connected from deep to pull within two with 1:13 left to play, but freshman Taishaun Johnson added a free throw with 38 seconds remaining to extend the lead to three points at 79-76.
Arkansas State’s three-point attempt missed and allowed Williams to grab the rebound. After being fouled, he sank both of his attempts to effectively ice the game.
Williams scored 12 of his 18 points after halftime. Johnson just missed a triple-double with 17 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists. Senior Dionte Ferguson led the team with 20 points while freshman Abdul Lewis added 15 points.
“I can’t begin to say enough about how proud I am of this team and what they’ve accomplished,” South Alabama head coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “They hung tough and made some tough plays in those last couple of minutes to secure the victory.
“This team is starting to grow up. Certainly it’s been frustrating at times, but if you look at us a month or two months ago, we would not have won this game. There’s no question about that. We would have ended up getting beat by six or eight points down the stretch. This team has grown up and they are doing more things consistently. Obviously, we can continue to get better, but I’m really proud of our effort and to have one more home game for our two seniors. We need to be focused and ready to go on Saturday.”
The Jaguars return home to host Troy for their regular season finale on Senior Night. Jags and Trojans tip-off at 4:05PM at the Mitchell Center.
South Alabama 2015 Football schedule and Spring Game Dates Released
South Alabama, in conjunction with the Sun Belt Conference office, released the full 2015 football schedule late last week. Previously the dates had only been set for the Jaguars non-conference schedule and the Jaguars knew who in the conference they would be facing, but not the dates.
The 2015 schedule will be a good one. USA has two nationally-televised home games on the ESPN family of networks this fall. The first will be on Tuesday, October 13 at 8pm against Arkansas State on ESPN2. The second will be against Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday, November 12 on ESPNU.
Here is the complete football schedule:
- September 5 vs Garner-Webb Time:TBA
- September 12 @ Nebraska Time:TBA
- September 19 @ San Diego State Time:TBA
- September 26 vs North Carolina State Time:TBA
- October 3 @ Troy Time:TBA
- October 13 vs Arkansas State Time: 8PM
- October 24 @ Texas State Time:TBA
- November 7 vs Idaho Time:TBA
- November 12 vs Louisiana-Lafayette Time:TBA
- November 21 @ Georgia State Time:TBA
- November 28 @ Georgia Southern Time:TBA
- December 5 vs Appalachian State Time:TBA
Five of the 12 teams they face this season participated in bowl games last year including five Sun Belt teams that finished tied or ahead of the Jags in the final conference standings. Eight of the 12 posted winning records last season with three, Georgia Southern, Louisiana-lafayette and Nebraska, all earning nine wins last season.
Kickoff times for the games are yet to be determined.
This week the Jaguars announced when spring practices would start and announced the date of the annual Red-Blue Spring Game.
The Jags will hit the practice fields in less than two weeks as they start their spring schedule on Monday, March 16 for the first of 15 workouts over the span of four weeks. The full spring practice schedule will be released before spring drills begin.
The annual Red-Blue game is scheduled for noon on Saturday, April 11 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and will be part of a big weekend of South Alabama sports. The Red-Blue game starts at noon, the nationally ranked Jaguar softball team will host Georgia Southern starting at 1pm at Jaguar Field and the baseball team will host Appalachian State at Eddie Stanky Field with first pitch scheduled for 6:30pm.
Jaguar Softball’s Devin Brown earns 2nd SBC Pitcher of the Week Honor
Freshman pitcher Devin Brown earned her second SBC Pitcher of the Week honor after going 2-0 with 26 strikeouts over the weekend at the 2015 Carolina Classic. | Photo: usajaguars.com
For the second time this season, freshman pitcher Devin Brown has been named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the week. This is also the third weekly honor for given to a South Alabama player in four voting periods.
In the 2015 Carolina Classic in Columbia, SC, Brown went 2-0 with 26 strikeouts in 18 innings of work. She helped the team to win over Tennessee State and South Carolina to improve to 7-2 on the year. She only allowed four earned runs on eight hits in four appearances over the weekend including back-to-back eight-strikeout performances in the final day against Marshall and the Gamecocks.
Brown currently has a 1.88 ERA with 123 strikeouts and 18 earned runs allowed in 67 innings of work. She also has two saves and two shutouts in 16 total appearances. Opposing batters have been held to a .145 average and she is tied for the conference lead in strikeouts and is in the top three in the Sun Belt in ERA, opposing batting average and wins.
The Jags will return to the diamond on Saturday to being their conference schedule when they host Louisiana-Lafayette for a three game series beginning at noon on Saturday.