by ATLANTA – The 23rd-ranked University of South Alabama baseball team pounded out a season high 17 hits and Kevin Hill (Muscogee Creek Nation) tossed his fourth complete game of the season in a 9-3 series-opening win over Georgia State Friday at GSU Baseball Complex.
Every Jaguar starter hit safely in the game, led by Ben Gann and Drew LaBounty who each went 3-for-4 with a double, one RBI and one run scored. Jared Barnes finished 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and one run scored, Cole Billingsley went 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI, one run scored and a stolen base and Matt Bolger finished 2-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored. Jason Cryar added two hits and one run, and Danny Martinez recorded one hit with two RBI and one run scored.
Hill (8-1) struck out seven and issued two walks while allowing three runs on six hits in nine innings to earn his eighth win of the season. The right-hander allowed just two hits over his final four frames, and moved to within one strikeout of tying former Jaguar All-American Jon Lieber (298) for fourth on the career strikeouts list at USA.
South Alabama (32-11, 17-2 SBC) batted around in the top of the first inning after spotting Hill a four-run lead. Billingsley doubled to left-center with one out, and scored one batter later on an RBI double to left field by LaBounty for a 1-0 advantage. Bolger delivered a two-out RBI single down the left field line later in the inning to score LaBounty and double the Jag lead to 2-0. Cryar followed with a single to left field before an RBI single to center field by Barnes plated Bolger to extend the USA lead to 3-0. Martinez delivered an RBI single back up the middle one batter later to score Cryar for a 4-0 lead.
Georgia State (19-22, 7-12 SBC) answered in the bottom of the first when Ryan Blanton reached on a leadoff triple, and scored on an RBI groundout to second by Joey Roach to cut the Jaguar lead to 4-1.
USA responded with three runs in the top of the fifth to push its lead to six. Brendan Donovan reached on a hit by pitch to lead off the inning, and moved to third on a single through the right side of the infield by Bolger. Barnes then delivered a one-out RBI double down the left field line to score Donovan for a 5-1 USA advantage. Martinez then reached on a suicide squeeze that scored Bolger to push the Jag lead to 6-1. Ben Gann followed with an RBI double to left field to plate Barnes for a 7-1 lead.
The Panthers scored their second run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Darius Sewell led off the inning with a single to center field, and scored later in the inning on a wild pitch by Hill to cut the USA lead to 8-2.
GSU cut the Jaguar advantage to 8-3 in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI groundout by Jarrett Hood that scored Justin Jones, who doubled to lead off the inning.
South Alabama answered with the game’s final run in the top of the seventh on an RBI single to center field by Swaggerty – which extended his hitting streak to 14 games – to score Ben Gann, who led off the inning with a double to left field, for a 9-3 advantage.
“I was really pleased with the offense tonight, because of our struggles against left-handed starters,” USA head coach Mark Calvi said. “Our overall record against left-handed starters is now 9-3, but our numbers against left-handed pitchers have not been good, and some guys who had been struggling against them made some adjustments and did well tonight so that was good to see moving forward. We hit-and-ran – Matt Bolger executed a hit-and-run – and we were aggressive on the bases. We made a few mistakes, but when you are aggressive on the bases then some mistakes are going to happen.
“Kevin’s job is to go out there on Friday and finish the ballgame. Georgia State swings the bats, and they will be ready to play tomorrow. We have a few hours to enjoy this one, then it’s a new day and we will be ready to play a very solid offensive team in Georgia State tomorrow.”
