Box Score MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama (18-16, 6-7 SBC) banged out 19 hits on its way to a 20-7 victory over the UALR baseball team (15-18, 6-7) on Friday night at Stanky Field. Four different players drove in three-or-more runs for the Jaguars, led by a game-high five RBI from outfielder Nolan Earley.
South Alabama scored 12 runs over the first three innings and never looked back on its way to its third-straight victory. Early finished 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs scored and five RBI, while Taylor White added a 4-for-6, four-run, three-RBI performance. Eleven of South Alabama's 19 hits went for extra bases, with Earley and Brent Tanner both delivering home runs in the win. Tanner's solo homer in the bottom of the seventh brought his season total to a team-high seven.
UALR started things off on the right foot as senior Jake Rowell staked the Trojans to an early 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run single to right in the top of the first. South Alabama answered immediately, however, pushing across four runs in the bottom half to build a 4-2 lead it would never relinquish. USA's first five batters reached base in the first inning, with Earley highlighting the scoring with a two-run double to center.
UALR cut its deficit to two runs, 6-4, in the top of the third as junior Nick Rountree hit a two-run homer to left - his team-leading sixth of the year. With its lead cut to two, South Alabama sent 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth as it put together a six-run rally to go on top 12-4.
Starter Travis Henke (1-2) was saddled with the loss after surrendering 12 hits and 12 runs (nine earned) to the Jaguars over 2.2 innings of work. USA starter Garrett Harris struck out nine Trojans and improved to 4-2 on the year with the win, despite allowing 14 hits and seven runs over 8.0 frames.
UALR tallied 14 hits in the losing effort, led by a 3-for-5, two-RBI performance by Rowell, who was one of four Trojans to record a multi-hit effort on Friday. Junior Niko Navarro scored UALR's final run of the game with a pinch-hit home run in the top of the eighth - his first of the year.
UALR and South Alabama return to action tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.
