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!
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Roundup
Softball
The #12 ranked Jaguar softball team earned their second sweep of a Sun Belt opponent over the weekend when they hosted Louisiana-Monroe.
The weekend began with a double-header on Saturday with a 2-0 win despite being helt hitless for the first time in 119 games, which dates back to March 24, 2012 when Florida Atlantic no-hit the Jaguars yet USA still picked up a 3-1 win as well.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Kaitlyn Griffith got on base when she was hit by a pitch. She then stole second and third bases to get into scoring position. Then Chloe Rathburn lifted a sacrifice fly which allowed Griffith to score and take a 1-0 lead over the Warhawks.
In the next inning, Emily Messer drew a walk, then stole second base to get into scoring position. Then Stephanie Pilkington grounded out but allowed Messer to round third base and baited a throw to third base from the Warhawk third baseman. She dashed home on the putout attempt and scored to give the Jaguars their 2-0 margin of victory.
Hannah Campbell tossed her fourth shutout of the season and shrunk her ERA to 0.65 and improved her season record to 10-2.
In game two, USA put up 11 hits and scored runs in four of the six innings they batted in. They started out quickly with a run in the bottom of the first when Pilkington led off with a single to center field. Then she scored on the first of two doubles in the game by Griffith.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Jags opened a big lead that started with Blair Johnson and Amanda Minahan scoring on Griffith’s second double of the game to take a 3-0 led. Rathburn then reached on a fielder’s choice which allowed Griffith to score. Chloe would score when Taylor Rodgers was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 5-0.
In the bottom of the sixth, Griffith drove in another run to make it 6-0 Jags.
The Jags ended their scoring for the day with a lead off solo homer to center field straight into a 20-mile per hour wind to put the Jags up 7-0.
The Warhawks ended their shutout after Farish Beard was relieved by McKinnon, who began by striking out her first batter, but allowed back-to-back singles, with the second allowing the runner to score. She then forced a groundout and a pop out to end the game.
Beard improved her record to 16-1 on the season and lowered her nation-leading ERA to 0.43.
The Jaguars ended the series on Sunday with a 7-0 shutout thanks to a trio of Jaguar pitchers. Offensively the Jags churned out 11 hits in the game to extend their winning streak to 13 games.
The Jags got started early again with three runs in the bottom of the first inning get off on the right foot. Stephanie Pilkington lead off the game with a walk, then Blair Johnson hit an RBI single through the right side to drive her in. Rathburn later hit a one-out, two run single to drive in Minahan and Johnson for the 3-0 advantage.
In the bottom of the second, back-to-back singles prompted the Warhawks to yank out their starter Samantha Hamby, who no-hit the Jaguars in the first game on Saturday. Jessica Colliver would pitch the Warhawks out of the inning without any further damage.
In the bottom of the third, she would walk Rathburn which would lead to the Jaguars fourth run of the game when Gwen Jones came in to pinch run for her. She would steal second then score on Alex Breeden’s RBI single to center field.
In the bottom of the fourth, Pilkington would lead off the inning with a single, then Minahan followed with a double. Johnson would drive in Pilkington with her second RBI single of the day. Colliver would be relieved by Haylie Wilson which Rathburn would lift a sacrifice fly to right field off of to allow Minahan to score. Johnson would score when Amanda Herron’s singled up the middle to put the Jags up by their winning margin 7-0.
Campbell would pitch five innings with six strikeouts and five hits allowed. Kaleigh Floore would walk three to load the bases before she was relieved by Farish Beard in one out remaining in the game. Beard of strike the last batter out to finish the game.
Pilkington led the Jags at the plate by going 5-for-8 with four runs cored and one RBI.
With the sweep, the Jags improve to 29-3 overall and a perfect 7-0 in conference play.
The Jags will travel to Tuscaloosa to face the #5/7 ranked Crimson Tide on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 6pm.
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team had their friday evening game postponed until Saturday due to field conditions with the rain.
UT-Arlington came out hot on Saturday with two runs in the top of the first inning. They would score two more runs before the Jaguars got on the board in the bottom of the third inning on Cole Gleason’s two-out RBI single to make it 4-1, Mavericks.
The Jags would fall 8-3 in the first game.
UTA would strike first in the second game by taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. But the Jags would take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth before the Mavericks answered with the equalizing run in the top of the fifth.
Multiple run innings in the seventh and eighth inning would let the Mavericks clinch the series with a 6-2 win.
The Jags didn’t fare any better on Sunday when the Mavericks earned the series sweep with a 6-1 win.
The Jags fall to 13-13 on the season and 3-5 in conference play. The Mavericks improve to 12-16 overall and 4-5 in SBC play.
USA Baseball VS UT-Arlington Postponed
Due to weather, South Alabama has announced their game this evening against UT-Arlington has been postponed. They will play a double-header on Saturday with the first game starting at 3pm at Eddie Stanky Field.
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguars will host a three game series against Sun Belt newcomers UT-Arlington this weekend beginning tonight at 6:30pm if the weather permits. Game two on Saturday is set for 3pm and will be televised by the Sun Belt Network and also will be available on WatchESPN.com. The final game of the series will get underway at noon on Sunday.
All three games will be streamed from the University website as well as broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
Softball
The Lady Jaguars will also be hosting a three game weekend series against Louisiana-Monroe starting with a double-header on Saturday starting at 1pm with the second game set to start at 3pm. They will wrap up the weekend series on Sunday with a 1pm start.
Football
The Jaguars will have their annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday at 11am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Though this will not be their final spring practice. Gates will open to the parking lot around 8am.
Track and Field
On Thursday, the men’s track and field team set three new school records at the 87th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.
Senior Connor Smith earned individual honors in the Section ‘B’ men’s pole vault with a 5.20m vault which was good enough to break his own all-time Jaguar best by 1/10 of a meter and to lead the field of 16.
Garrett Schumacher toppled his own record in the decathlon by finishing with 6,991 points to claim 11th overall. He entered Thursday with 3,644 points through five events. He then set new personal records in the pole vault (4.80m), discus throw (40.51m) and 100-meter hurdles (15.94m).
Freshman Renaldo Frechou set a new record in the hammer throw for the third time this season. His throw of 63.27m on his sixth and final attempt put him 5th in the 25 man field.
Bobbie Williamson also put up a career-high measure of 59.53m in the women’s hammer throw which was good enough for second place all-time in the Jaguar history books.
They will continue today in Texas with Jan-Louw Kotze in discus and Tyler Agee in the 110-meter hurdles.
Jaguar Football Held Final Practice Prior To Red-Blue Spring Game On Saturday
The Jaguar football team held their final practice before their annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday to be held at 11am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The team practiced in full pads for around two hours with sessions focusing on multiple situations. They also worked on kickoff coverage and returns. Some of the situational drills included first, second and third down situations, red zone drills and two-minute drills.
Prior to the situational drills the team worked on inside run drills and 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills. The defense continued to install coverage and blitz packages. All phases of the game saw time devoted toward individual skills and position workouts.
The teams for the spring game will be determined later this week.
The Spring Game is open to the public with free parking at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. They will get started at 11am. Afterwards on campus the #12 ranked Jaguars softball team will host ULM for a double-header starting at 1pm and the baseball team will host UT-Arlington at 3pm.
Go Jags!