Jags Baseball Surrender First Place To Florida Atlantic
The Jags fell to second place in the Sun Belt after this past weekend’s three game series at Stanky Field. After falling 7-2 to FAU on Friday night, the Jags came from behind on Saturday night to win 6-5 on a walk-off balk in the 9th inning.
On Sunday afternoon, the Jags lost 6-3 to FAU after a squandering a 3-0 lead in the top of the eighth inning. The Jags allowed five runs on six hits in the top of the eighth, including back-to-back home runs to take the lead 5-3. FAU added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.
So the Jags went into the weekend with a one game lead over FAU but leave the weekend trailing by one game. FAU improves to 18-8 in the Sun Belt and 30-17 for the season while the Jags fall to 16-7 in the Sun Belt and 29-19 on the season.
The Jags still control their own fate though with two more Sun Belt series left in the regular season while FAU only has one series left against FIU.
The Jags have their last non-conference game tomorrow night at Stanky Field when they host #18 ranked Auburn University then they will travel to FIU for a three game weekend series followed by a Thursday through Saturday series at Stanky Field hosting Troy University to end the regular season.
Jaguars Baseball First Place In SBC
The Jaguars baseball team is sitting in first place in the Sunbelt. They have a half game lead over second place Florida Atlantic and a game and a half lead on third place MTSU.
With three remaining Sunbelt conference series left in the season. Their first series will be hosting Florida Atlantic after the Jags off week. The following weekend is a travel to Florida International then the season ending series against Troy in Mobile.
However, when the regular season ends it will only be the beginning for the Jags. In order to get into the College Baseball World Series, Coach Kittrell feels that the Jags need to win conference tournament. Kittrell says that even though the Sunbelt is currently the 5th ranked conference in the nation, it does not guarantee that two or more teams could make the College World Series. The Jags do not want to leave it up to chance, for good reason.
Jags Finish Out Series with ULL And Visit #21 SLU
The Jags won the final game of their series against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday to win the series 2-1 but it took extra innings to do so. In the bottom of the 13th inning the Jags plated a run win 12-11.
Jag second baseman Zach Grichor led off the inning with a double through the left side of the diamond. He then scored the game winning run when Chase Traffica’s pitch passed the catcher and allowed Zach to score.
Then on Wednesday the Jags traveled to Hammond, LA to take on #21 Southeastern Louisiana. SLU took the lead in their half of the 1st inning with two runs. In the 3rd inning, the Jags cut the lead in half but their inning saw the Jags score four runs to take a 5-2 lead. Then in the bottom half of the inning, SLU scored one to cut the lead to two runs.
The Jags are now 15-9 on the season and 5-1 in the Sun Belt. The Jags will play a three game, weekend series in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to take on the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State.
Jaguars Baseball Early Season Review
The Jags Baseball team started the season with with some big games against teams like Alabama, Tulane and Siena before they opened up their conference schedule.
They had chances against Alabama to win both games before the first one in Tuscaloosa got out of hand, but the next day in Mobile, they kept it much closer yet still fell in the end.
Their match-up against Mississippi State had to be rescheduled due to weather. The Jags then defeated Tulane at Stanky field and took two of three against Siena also at Stanky field.
These early season games put the Jags record at 8-5 as they started Sun Belt play. Their first opponent came on the road in Little Rock, Arkansas against UALR. The Jags swept the three game weekend series.
They then stepped back out of Sun Belt play to face Memphis in Tennessee where they split the two game series.
This weekend the Jags opened up their Sun Belt home schedule against Louisiana-Lafayette and have split the first two games with ULL winning on Friday night and the Jags winning last nights showdown. The final game of this weekends series will begin at 1pm today with the Jags hoping to run their record to 14-8 on the season.
The remainder of the Jags season will continue to have out of conference foes sprinkled between three game weekend series. They have some good schools on the list too such as Southern Miss, Auburn and Nicholls State.
But one of the big stories of the season so far happened during the UALR series when long time coach Steve Kittrell recorded his 1,000th win at South Alabama.
South Alabama is sitting in a good spot early in the Sun Belt season. They have a 4-1 record and seem to be growing more consistent. The major factor the rest of the season will be the pitching from the bullpen. If the starters can stay out of trouble early and go deep into the games, the Jags have a much better chance at the Sun Belt title this season.
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Jaguar Baseball Complete Weekend Sweep Of Lousiana-Lafayette
The Jaguars swept the weekend series 9-5, 8-6 and 7-4 for their first sweep of ULL since 1999 and the first at ULL since 1995.
The Jags got a great effort from Brandon Sage, who went 7 innings and allowed three runs. Lance Baxter came in for the last two innings for his fourth save of the week.
After the weekend sweep the Jaguars have improved their record to 18-20 overall and 8-10 in the Sun Belt.
The Jaguars will make a stop in Thibodaux, Louisiana on Tuesday to face Nicholls. Then come back to Stanky Field to host the Alabama Crimson Tide for a 6pm matchup on Wednesday, April 22nd. They will also host a weekend series against Middle Tennessee State.
Go Jags!