South Alabama lost to Marshall by a score of 6-2 in the opening game of their baseball series on April 17 at Stanky Field.
The result is important for both teams as they compete in the Sun Belt Conference, with South Alabama now holding a record of 22-16 overall and 8-8 in conference play, while Marshall moves to an even 18-18 overall and improves to 9-7 in the conference.
Marshall took an early lead with a sacrifice fly and added two more runs in the third inning. South Alabama responded with two runs in their half of the third. Rett Johnson tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Brennon Wright, followed by catcher Duncan Mathews hitting his sixth home run of the season. However, Marshall answered back quickly with a two-run double to make it 5-2 after four innings. The Herd added another run with an RBI double in the eighth inning for the final margin.
Several Jaguars players extended hitting streaks during the game. Mathews’ home run pushed his streak to four games, going seven-for-fifteen over that span. Johnson’s triple was his fifth extra-base hit over four games; he has gone nine-for-sixteen during his five-game hitting streak. Marc Stephens also extended his own hit streak to six games.
Head coach Mark Calvi said, “Mitchell Heer is a Friday night guy. You let him go out there and work through some stuff and he competed hard for us. It could have gone sideways, but it didn’t. It wasn’t his best start, but it was as good as he’s competed all year long. Proud of his effort. We’re all human beings, and that’s what makes this game so great and so brutal at the same time. Tomorrow’s a new day and I told our guys it wasn’t a matter of effort. We hate the results, we lost, it didn’t go our way tonight. Tonight’s just one game and we have two-thirds of the series left.”
The series will continue on Saturday afternoon when Ryland Bozenhard is scheduled to start for South Alabama against Drew Harlow for Marshall.
