MOBILE, Ala. — The South Alabama baseball team won two of three games at Texas State in the programs’ first meeting, while Renaldo Frechou broke the Jaguar hammer throw record for the fourth time this season at the Tiger Classic in Auburn.
The No. 11 South Alabama softball team dropped two of three games to Texas State in San Marcos, Texas.
LaBounty Delivers in 13 Innings
Drew LaBounty’s one-out RBI single to left field in the top of the 13th inning gave South Alabama a 5-4 win in the series opener.
The Jaguars trailed by a run entering the ninth. Justin Cullifer reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning, and Matt Wojciechowski’s sacrifice bunt moved pinch runner Cole Jarman to second. LaBounty tied the game 4-4 with a two-out RBI single to right field.
Ben Taylor (3-1) earned the win with 4 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk with a career-high six strikeouts.
Williams Blanks Jaguars
Texas State’s Austen Williams threw a complete-game shutout in game two as the Bobcats won 2-0. Williams (4-1) allowed four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.
South Alabama’s Kevin Hill (2-4) also went the distance, allowing two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks. He allowed only two hits over his final five innings.
Jaguars Clinch Series Sunday
South Alabama won the series with a 7-2 victory Sunday, scoring in each of the first three innings and adding three runs in the ninth.
In the first, Cole Gleason walked with two outs, Hayden Jones singled off Texas State pitcher Lucas Humpal and Wojciechowski singled through the right side to score Gleason. In the second, LaBounty singled, moved up on Andrew Tindell’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Adam Ballew’s RBI single to right. In the third, Connor Hawthorne doubled down the left-field line with two outs and scored on LaBounty’s RBI double to left-center for a 3-0 lead.
Texas State cut the lead to 3-2 and threatened for more, but Hunter Soleymani got out of the inning with a 6-4-3 double play. Ballew’s fielder’s choice in the sixth scored Hawthorne for a 4-2 lead.
In the ninth, Ballew was hit by a pitch and Cummings reached on a fielder’s choice before Gleason’s two-run double to the right-center gap scored both. Wojciechowski’s groundout to second brought Gleason home for the final run.
South Alabama plays at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La., at 6 p.m. Wednesday before hosting Arkansas State in a weekend series at Eddie Stanky Field.
Bobcats Take Softball Series
South Alabama won the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader 8-0. Amanda Minahan went 2-for-4 with two home runs, tying the school record for homers in a game, and scored three runs with three RBI. Stephanie Pilkington was 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run.
Hannah Campbell earned her 12th win with her fourth shutout of the season, striking out seven without a walk and allowing five hits. Freshman Holly McKinnon recorded the final two outs, striking out both batters she faced.
Texas State won the second game 4-1 after taking an early 3-0 lead. Chloe Rathburn’s triple drove in Blair Johnson, who had walked, for the Jaguars’ only run. Kaitlyn Griffith was hit by a pitch and Amanda Herron walked to load the bases, but South Alabama could not score again.
On Sunday, South Alabama stranded 10 runners in a 4-3 loss. Texas State scored in the first, and freshman Taylor Rodgers answered with a two-run homer in the fourth for a 2-1 Jaguar lead. The Bobcats scored three runs in the fifth to go ahead 4-2.
South Alabama put runners on the corners in the sixth without scoring. In the seventh, Johnson led off with a single and scored when Alex Breeden reached on a two-out error, but pinch runner Alyssa Linn was thrown out at third base to end the game.
Campbell (12-3) took the loss, allowing four earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and four walks.
South Alabama fell to 30-6 overall and 8-2 in the Sun Belt. Texas State improved to 21-20 and 4-5. The Jaguars host Mississippi State at Jaguar Field on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Frechou Sets Hammer Record Again
The South Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams set a school record and won four events at the Tiger Classic in Auburn, Ala.
Frechou won the men’s hammer throw in a field of 20 with a school-record 63.87 meters on his sixth and final attempt, his fourth record of the season. Five Jaguars finished in the top 10, with Adam Patterson third (58.37 meters), Jeff Long fourth (56.60 meters), Jarrod Kedzior ninth and Jan-Louw Kotze 10th. Bobbie Williamson placed third in the women’s hammer with a final throw of 56.26 meters.
Noelle Jones won the women’s javelin at 44.08 meters, with Ashton Pennington second at 39.97 meters and Sarah Petty fifth at 37.73 meters. Robert King was seventh in the men’s javelin at 53.05 meters.
Kotze won the men’s discus in a field of 21 with a throw of 55.25 meters, and Joe Gratton earned his first career win in the 3,000 meters in 8:35.56.
