MOBILE, Ala. — The No. 20 South Alabama baseball team took two of three games from Middle Tennessee over the weekend at Eddie Stanky Field to win another Sun Belt Conference series, with the first two games each requiring extra innings.
Meanwhile, the Lady Jaguar softball team had its regular-season finale at Troy canceled and will enter the Sun Belt tournament as the No. 2 seed.
A 14-Inning Opener
The series opener began at 2 p.m. Friday but was suspended because of rain with South Alabama trailing 11-9 in the top of the 14th inning. When play resumed Saturday evening, the Jaguars rallied for a 12-11 win.
Earley’s Walk-Off Double Wins Game Two
South Alabama needed an extra inning again Saturday. Nolan Earley lined a two-out double into the right-center field gap in the bottom of the 10th to give the Jaguars a 3-2 win.
Cole Billingsley started the rally by reaching on a bunt down the first-base line and advanced to third on Whitt Dorsey’s single to right-center. Earley drove a 1-0 pitch into the gap to bring Billingsley home.
Matt Bell allowed two unearned runs on four hits with five strikeouts and no walks and did not factor in the decision.
Blue Raiders Hold On in Finale
Middle Tennessee avoided the sweep with a 6-5 win Sunday.
Jacob Noble took the loss after allowing three unearned runs on seven hits over six innings, with six strikeouts and one walk.
The Blue Raiders built a 5-0 lead, capped by a two-run homer to right field in the top of the seventh. South Alabama answered in the bottom half when Nick Zaharion doubled to left-center and scored on a double by Earley, which was the 200th hit and 50th double of his career. Earley scored on Dustin Dalken’s groundout to make it 5-2.
Middle Tennessee added a run in the eighth for a 6-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, the Jaguars loaded the bases with two outs on a walk to Dorsey, a hit-by-pitch to Jordan Patterson and a walk to Zaharion, but a popup ended the threat.
South Alabama rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth before Zaharion grounded into a game-ending 5-3 double play.
The Jaguars will next host Southeastern Louisiana at Eddie Stanky Field in a makeup of a game that was rained out last month.
Softball Settles for No. 2 Seed
The 18th-ranked South Alabama softball team’s regular-season-ending doubleheader at Troy was canceled because of field conditions.
The cancellation cost the Jaguars a chance at the regular-season title and the tournament’s top seed after Western Kentucky (38-14, 20-3 Sun Belt) swept Middle Tennessee on Friday. South Alabama (41-7, 17-3) will be the No. 2 seed, ahead of third-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette.
Western Kentucky will open the tournament against No. 8 seed Louisiana-Monroe (19-33, 3-20) at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. South Alabama will open against No. 7 seed Troy (20-30, 7-14).
South Alabama enters the tournament as the conference’s highest-ranked team, at No. 18 in both national polls, and stands 15th in the NCAA RPI.
Pregame Background
South Alabama entered the series 34-12 overall and 15-6 in the Sun Belt, in first place in the conference standings with a seven-game winning streak and an RPI of 15.
Middle Tennessee came in 25-22 overall and 8-13 in league play, closing a seven-game road trip. The Blue Raiders had beaten Tennessee in Knoxville on Tuesday after losing two of three at Arkansas State the previous weekend, and they were 6-13 on the road.
Jarron Cito (4-2, 5.10 ERA) made his 12th start of the season in the opener for South Alabama, opposed by Middle Tennessee’s Johnathan Frebis (5-5, 5.06 ERA). The Jaguars lead the all-time series with Middle Tennessee 37-21 in a rivalry that dates to the early 1970s.
Friday’s opener was scheduled ahead of the university’s 50th anniversary celebration, set for 6:30 p.m. that evening at the Mitchell Center.
