South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
South Alabama will host Louisiana-Monroe this weekend for a three-game Sun Belt series at Eddie Stanky Field. They will get underway tonight at 6:30pm with Locke St. John (4-1) taking the mound for the Jaguars in his 11th start of the season. Payton Coddou (0-2) will make only his third start of the season for the Warhawks.
Game two will start at 6:30pm on Saturday with Kevin Hill (2-5) making his ninth start of the season. Then Hunter Soleymani (0-2) will get the start in the series finale on Sunday.
USA is in the midst of a three game losing streak as they have fallen to 17-23 overall and 7-10 in conference play. The Jags are currently holding onto a tie for sixth place in the Sun Belt Conference standings. They are tied with their in-state rivals Troy and two games back from Western Kentucky and UT-Arlington who are tied for fourth place with a 9-9 conference record.
All three games will be broadcast on 105.5FM WNSP and streamed online on WNSP.com.
Softball
The 20th ranked Jaguar softball team look to return to their early season form as they play down the home stretch going into the Sun Belt Conference Championships that begin on May 7.
The Jags have lost seven of their last 12 games including their midweek game at LSU.
They travel to Western Kentucky for a three game series against the Hilltoppers as USA only has five games left in the regular season.
Track and Field
The Men’s and Women’s track and field teams will conclude their regular season this weekend when they travel to Troy, Alabama for the 14th Annual Coach “O” Invitational. Meanwhile three Jags will travel to Philadelphia on Saturday to compete in the Penn Relays.
The Coach “O” Invitational is a two day event starting 3pm on Friday with Men’s and Women’s hammer throws, long jumps, pole vault, steeplechase, and women’s 10,000 meter run. Saturday will get started at 10am with running events beginning at 11:30am.
Women’s Soccer
Two of South Alabama’s soccer signees, Grete-Lilijane Kuppas and Tiina Trutsi, have been called up by the Estonian Women’s National Team for its FIFA World Cup qualification match on Saturday.
Estonia has three points through three matches in UEFA Group 2 and will face the Czech Republic, the team one spot ahead of them with four points in four matches.
Trutsi, who plays for FC FLora Tallinn club team has 15 international caps and was named the 2012 Estonian Female Young Player of the Year.
Kuppas was six caps and plays for Tammeka Tartu.
“It is a massive honor for both girls to represent their country,” Jaguar head coach Graham Winkworth said. “The World Cup is the biggest sporting event there is and so to have the opportunity to play in qualifiers is huge. I want to wish them the best of luck and hopefully they will get the right result.”
The USA Soccer team went 14-6-1 last year and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in Coach Winkworth’s first season at the helm.