USA Has Four Named To All-SBC Teams In Tennis
South Alabama placed four student-athletes on All-Sun Belt teams on Wednesday.
Sophomore Daniel Leitner and senior Alex Bernard were named to the 2013 All-Sun Belt Conference Men’s Tennis Team. Leitner was voted to the first team in singles while Bernard was voted on the second team in singles, giving him his second consecutive All-Sun Belt honor in the last two seasons. He earned doubles honors in 2012.
The #2 seeded South Alabama Jaguars will open play in the Sun Belt Championships on Thursday against Western Kentucky.
Sophomore Emily Newton and freshman Michaela Meszarosova were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team for women’s tennis.
Newton was named to the second team in singles while Meszarosova was to the doubles second team. These honors were the first for the program since 2009.
The Lady Jaguars earned a #4 seed in the Sun Belt Championships and will play the winner between #12 Western Kentucky and #5 Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday morning.
Terry Fowler Hired As Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Terry Fowler was named the new head women’s basketball coach at South Alabama. | timesdaily.com
South Alabama Athletics Director Joel Erdmann announced he has hired Terry Fowler as the head women’s basketball coach for the Jaguars. Fowler is coming off two NCAA Division II Tournament appearances in the last three years at the University of North Alabama.
Fowler has been the head coach at UNA for the last seven seasons as the guided the Lions to the NCAA tournament in both 2011 and 2013 by winning 20-plus games in each of those seasons. He was chosen to Gulf South Conference East Division Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading his team to a 12-0 record in conference play. They would finish 21-7 after advancing to the NCAA Tournament for thier first appearance in the event since the 1993-94 season.
When Fowler was hired by UNA, he inherited a team that won 11 games combined the two previous seasons. In his first season, he led the Lions to a 14-14 record overall and their first berth in the conference tournament since 2003. He then coached the team to winning records in each of the last five season posting an overall record of 115-87 for a 56.9 winning percentage. He also has a 57-32 record in conference play for a 64 winning percentage.
Fowler has previously worked at both Spring Hill and South Alabama prior to his stint at UNA. He was an assistant on the Lady Jaguars staff during the 2000-01 and ’01-02 seasons. He also served as an assistant at SHC from 1993-98 before being promoted to head coach before the start of the ’98-99 season. He led the Badgers to their first-ever NAIA Tournament appearance with a 23-11 overall record while winning both the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles. He was named the conference coach of the year.
He returned to SHC in 2002 to lead the Badgers to their first ever NAIA national ranking and the semifinals of the GCAC TOurnament on two occasions.
Graves Announces Nored Will Join Staff
Butler alumni and Alabama native Ronald Nored joins Matt Graves’ staff at USA. | collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com
South Alabama head basketball coach Matt Graves announced an addition to his staff on Tuesday. Homewood, Alabama native Ronald Nored will return to his home state to be an assistant coach for the Jags. Nored was a former Butler standout and comes back to the state after spending one season as the head coach at Brownsburg (Indiana) High School.
During his playing career, Nored set a record with 143 games played, including a school record 16 postseason games, while leading the Bulldogs to three Horizon League regular season championships, two league tournament titles and four consecutive trips to postseason tournament play. It included back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship title game. During his four years at Butler, they one 109 games and were 12-4 in postseason play.
During his senior season Nored led the Horizon league in assist/turnover ratio with 1.9, was second in assists per game with 5.2 and set a new school record with 193 assists which broke the previous record of 172. He ranks second in Butler’s career assists list with 497.
He was also only the second player in school history to record 400 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists in a career.
In his only season as a head coach, Nored’s team began 3-8 but rallied to finish 11-10 on the season.
Jags Fall To #6 Florida State 2-0
South Alabama’s Payton Gardner went six innings and allowed only one earned run on five hits with seven strikeouts and only one walk in the 2-0 loss to #6 Florida State on Tuesday evening at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee.
The Seminoles scored the only two runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning as they improved to 31-6 on the season. The Jags brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth inning, but a popup down the left field line ended the game. The Jags record falls to 27-11 on the season.
Bud Collura went 3-for-4 to lead the Jags at the plate, but they could not manufacture runs against the ‘noles. FSU’s Peter Miller pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings with four strikeouts and only one walk. Bobby Coles threw a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his eighth save of the year for FSU.
The Jaguars return to action this weekend at Eddie Stanky Field when they host Western Kentucky for a key Sun Belt Conference series. The Jags and the Hilltoppers are both atop the SBC Baseball standings.
Zaharion Named SBC Player Of The Week, FSU Game To Be Broadcast On ESPN3
South Alabama Jaguar outfielder Nick Zaharion was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week on Monday by conference officials. Zaharion hit .533 with three doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and five runs scored in the last four games including the weekend sweep of Arkansas State.
He reached base in each of the four games and recorded multiple hits in two of them. He also drove in multiple runs in three of the four games while tying a career high five RBI in Saturdays 20-2 win over ASU.
This is the second time Zaharion has been named the SBC PotW, previously it was on March 26 of last season.
For the season, he is batting .345 with three doubles, four home runs, 18 RBI and eight runs scored in nine Sun Belt games this season with a slugging percentage of .862.
It was also announced on Monday that the Jags game against #5 Florida State will be broadcast on ESPN3 from Tallahassee. First pitch is scheduled for 5pm Central at Dick HOwser Stadium. Along with ESPN3, the game will be broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
The South Alabama Jaguar baseball team swept their series against Arkansas State over the weekend by a combined score of 30-5. The Jags improve their record to 27-10 and 10-5 in SBC play. Arkansas State falls to 19-17 overall and 6-9 in SBC play.
Jarron Cito started for the Jags on Friday evening and earned the win behind a four-run fourth inning as the Jags won 6-2. City only allowed two runs on five hits through seven innings of work while striking out five with only one walk. Dylan Stamey struck out four while walking on in 1 2/3 innings of work to earn the second save of his career.
The Jags pounded ASU into submission on Saturday behind the pitching of Matt Bell. The Jags recorded 21 hits and scored in eight of the nine innings as they won 20-2.
Bell tied a career high in strikeouts with nine while only allowing two runs on five hits with one walk in another career high of eight innings of work.
South Alabama came within one hit of tying a season high for hits in a game. Nine different Jagaurs recorded hits with Jeff DeBlieux going 5-for-7 with two triples, three RBI and two runs scored. Nick Zaharion finished 4-for-5 with two doubles, two home runs, a career high five RBI and two runs scored.
Nolan Earley went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
In the final game of the weekend series, the Jags earned a 4-1 win behind Jacob Noble’s pitching. Noble allowed one unearned run on three hits in seven innings of work. He struck out five without giving up a walk to get his fourth win of the season and his first against a Sun Belt opponent.
Kyle Bartsch earned his eighth save of the season on one inning of work with two strikeouts. He tied former Jaguar Blaine Dollar for career saves at USA with the 18th of his career.
The Jags will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Tallahassee for a midweek game against Florida State.
The Jaguar baseball team is tied for first place in the conference with Western Kentucky with a 10-5 record each. FAU is second with a 9-5 record.
The Jags will host the Hilltoppers this weekend for a key three-game conference series.
Softball
The Jaguar softball team swept the Saturday doubleheader against North Texas. Blair Johnson hit her second game-winning home run of the season as she gave the Jags a walk-off 3-2 win over the Mean Green in the first game.
Hannah Campbell went the distance to earn her 17th win of the season. She allowed seven hits while striking out eight with only one walk in her seven innings of work. She allowed two runs, both unearned though.
THe Lady Jags earned their 11th mercy-rule win of the season when they defeated the Mean Green 12-1 in five innings in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader.
After the dramatics of the victory in the first game, the Jags burst out of the gate with nine hits and 11 runs in the first two innings of the game. Julie Moss hit her sixth home run of the season to give the Jags a 2-0 lead.
Farish Beard earned her 17th win of the season as well on 4 1/3 innings of work where she only allowed two hits and one run behind nine strikeouts and no walks. Jessica Dobson finished off the game with 2/3 of an inning of work where she allowed two hits, one run and a walk with one strikeout to wrap up the game.
The Sunday game was cancelled due to weather. The Jags record improved to 37-7 overall and 13-3 in Sun Belt play. North Texas fell to 18-19 overall and 6-9 in Sun Belt play on the season.
The Lady Jags continue to hold onto first place in the conference by one game in the win column. WKU is 12-3 on the season in Sun Belt play.
Busy Weekend In South Alabama Sports
The Jaguar baseball team will travel to Arkansas State for a weekend series while the Lady Jaguar Softball team will host North Texas. But that is not all going on this weekend in South Alabama sports.
The Men’s Tennis team will wrap up their regular season this weekend in Memphis, Tennessee as they face UAB and #46 Memphis. They enter this weekends matches with a 10-11 record overall after facing seven ranked opponents this season with wins over #30 BYU, #56 St. John’s and #60 Georgia State.
The women’s Tennis team will also wrap up their regular season this weekend at home against UAB. The matches will begin at 11am at the South Alabama Tennis courts.
Also the South Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams will hold their final home meet of the season on Friday and Saturday. They will welcome Alabama State, Loyola, North Alabama, Spring Hill, Tulane, West Alabama and West Florida to Jaguar Track for the South Alabama Invitational.
It will begin at 4:30pm on Friday and will start at 10am on Saturday morning with men’s javelin throw.
#23 USA Softball Blanks #25 Florida State
The South Alabama Jaguar softball team blanked the #25 ranked Florida State Seminoles 4-0 at Jaguar field on Wednesday evening. Farish Beard and Hannah Campbell combined for their sixth win-save of the season with Beard improving to 16-0 on the season while Hannah recorded her league leading sixth save of the season.
Beard struck out six with only two walks and three in the first four innings of the game. Hannah struck out four with only one hit and one walk in three innings of relief.
The win improves the Jags to 35-7 overall on the season as the Seminoles fells to 31-14 on the season. It was the first time FSU had been shut out in 31 games.
Senior Brittany Fowler got her 200th hit as a Jaguar in the game, she is tops in program history in hits.
The Jags will be in action again when they host North Texas this weekend at Jaguar Field in a three-game series. It will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday that will start at 1pm with the final game scheduled on Sunday at 11am.
#23 USA Host #25 FSU Tonight In Softball
South Alabama will host their second ranked opponent of the season on Wednesday night when #25 ranked Florida State visits #23 ranked South Alabama.
The Jags completed a perfect 5-0 week behind some shutout wins of FAU by scored of 11-0 and 6-0. It was also their second sweep of a Sun Belt opponent this season.
The Seminoles have a 3-1 advantage on the Jags all-time after the Jags defeated them for the first time last season by a score of 3-1.
First pitch is set for 6:00 at Jaguar Field.
Jags Baseball Fall To Nicholls State 4-1
The Jags fell to Nicholls State on Tuesday evening 4-1. The Colonels jumped ahead early with three runs in the first inning and stayed ahead behind Brandon Jackson’s pitching.
Jackson allowed only one run on five hits with six strikeouts and two walks for his first win of the season. Jaguar pitcher Andrew Fonzi took the loss in three innings of work after allowing four runs on five hits with two strikeouts and two walks.
The Colonels first score came on a two out, two run triple to left center. Then they plated another run one batter later on an RBI single to left field. In the top of the third inning, they added another run on a two-out RBI single through the left side.
The Jags were hitless until the bottom of the fifth inning before Whitt Dorsey got a single. He advanced to second base on a failed pickoff attempt. Later that same inning, the Jags would load the bases but Jackson pitched his way out of the jam without allowing a run.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Jags would load the bases again with no outs on three consecutive singles. A sacrifice fly by Hayden Jones would net the only Jaguar run of the game.
Hunter Soleymani, James Traylor and Brandon Boyle all combined to pitch six shutout innings and only allowed two hits with seven combined strikeouts.
Jackson pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Colonels and scattered five hits and only one earned run with six strikeouts. Marc Picciola and Jordan McCoy combined for 2 2/3 innings with each only allowing one hit each with Picciola picking up three strikeouts.
The Jags will travel to Jonesboro, Arkansas for a weekend series against Arkansas State with the first game set to begin at 6pm on Friday.