Box Score LITTLE ROCK - South Alabama (13-23, 8-7 Sun Belt) totaled 21 hits with four home runs on its way to a 14-7 win over UALR (18-18, 5-10) on Sunday afternoon at Gary Hogan Field. USA's Whitt Dorsey went 5-for-6 at the plate with two home runs, three runs scored and three RBI to help the Jaguars avoid a series sweep by the Trojans.
UALR took a 4-2 over South Alabama in the bottom of the third off a two-run homer by junior Chris Burk, but South Alabama starter Jarron Cito retired the next 13 Trojans he faced in-order and the Jaguar offense erupted for eight runs in the top of the fifth.
Junior Blake Johnson extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, and senior Sean Bignall tied the UALR single-season record with his 15th home run of the year in the bottom of the seventh. Senior Cameron Bentley went 2-for-5 and picked up his fourth triple of the year to tie the school's single-season mark, while sophomore Ben Crumpton hit his second home run in the bottom of the ninth and recorded his team-leading 16th stolen base.
Cito (4-3) worked 6.2 innings in the win, allowing seven hits and six runs with seven strikeouts. Sophomore Andrew Hohn (0-2) took the loss for UALR after surrendering four hits and five runs over 0.1 innings.
Bentley opened the game with his team-leading fourth triple of the year, and scored from third two batters later on a RBI groundout by senior Nick Rountree. After a scoreless first inning, the Jaguars pushed across two runs in the top of the second after Dustin Dalken singled and J.T. Files hit a double to get things going. USA tied things up on a RBI groundout by Hunt Griffith, and took a 2-1 lead as Robby Campbell hit a RBI base knock to left center.
Cito hit three batters and walked another in the bottom of the second to help UALR tie things up at 2-all. Bentley tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI single to left, but UALR ended up stranding three runners as Cito got an inning-ending fly out to right after loading the bases.
Tied at 2-2, UALR and South Alabama traded two-run homers in the bottom of the third and the top of the fourth to make it a 4-4 ballgame. Burk followed up a leadoff double from Johnson with a two-run shot to left in the bottom of the third to give UALR a short-lived 4-2 lead. South Alabama evened things up in the fourth as Griffith connected for his first home run of the year, a two-run shot to left with Files on base.
Freshman Cameron Allen allowed nine hits and four runs over 3.2 innings in his first start as a Trojans before giving way to Hohn in the fourth. Hohn recorded the final out of the fourth inning on a 1-3-6 caught stealing, but got into trouble in the fifth as USA's first five batters reached base on the way to an eight-run rally - the last five of which came with two outs on the board. Dorsey and Jordan Patterson led off the inning with back-to-back doubles, the last of which put the Jaguars on top for good. USA tacked on two more runs off RBI singles from Nick Zaharion and Dalken to go ahead 7-4 and chase Hohn from the game.
Junior Ethan Schlechte entered the game with two runners on base and no outs, and managed to retire two of the first three batters he faced before Nolan Earley delivered a bases-clearing double down the leftfield line. Dorsey followed with a two-out, two-run homer to left to cap off the eight-run rally and give the Jaguars a 12-4 lead.
South Alabama threatened to end the game early as solo homers by Dorsey and Brad Hook put the Jaguars on top 14-4 in the top of the seventh and brought the Sunday run rule into effect. Leading 14-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Cito opening the inning by retiring his 13th-consecutive Trojan before issuing a one-out walk to Bentley, and Bignall kept the Trojans alive with a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right center.
Jarrett Bailey closed out the victory by working the final 2.1 innings for South Alabama. The senior right-hander worked a perfect inning of relief in the eighth, but surrendered a solo homer to Crumpton in the bottom of the ninth to bring the game to its 14-7 conclusion.
UALR returns to action next weekend when it travels to Miami for a three-game series at Florida International.
