USA Softball Ranked In Top-25 For First Time In Program History
On Tuesday, a first in South Alabama history occurred. For the first time in school history both the Baseball team and the Softball team are ranked in the top-25.
Announced on Tuesday, the Jaguar softball team is ranked 25th in the ESPN.com / USA Softball Collegiate Top-25 for the first time in program history. The Jags are 23-5 on the season and received 20 votes in the poll this week after taking two of three from then #22 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette at Jaguar Field over the weekend. ULL fell out of the polls to make South Alabama the only nationally-ranked Sun Belt Conference team.
The Jags received 46 votes in the USA Today / National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association Division I poll, which was six votes short of #25 Nebraska who are 18-5 this season.
Below is the full Top-25 ESPN.com / USA Softball Collegiate ranking
1. Oklahoma (20) 27-1 500 1
2. Arizona State 29-2 474 2
3. Florida 27-3 444 3
4. Texas A&M 26-2 432 5
5. California 23-3 425 4
6. Alabama 26-3 398 6
7. Missouri 15-2 374 8
8. Tennessee 23-6 367 7
9. Texas 27-4 340 10
10. Oregon 23-4 333 9
11. Louisville 23-3 294 11
12. LSU 23-5 279 13
13. UCLA 23-4 251 12
14. Michigan 21-7 240 14
15. Baylor 25-5 213 15
16. Stanford 22-5 186 18
17. Washington 22-7 164 16
18. Tulsa 23-5 157 20
19. Virginia Tech 18-4 139 T21
20. Nebraska 18-5 105 T21
21. Kentucky 19-7 104 17
22. Arizona 20-8 102 19
23. Hawaii 22-7 56 23
24. Georgia 21-7 39 RV
25. South Alabama 23-5 20 RV
Jags Return To Practice Field After Spring Break
After over a week off, the Jaguars returned to the practice fields to continue spring football practice.
They hit the fields at 6am to practice in some breezy conditions which affected certain aspects of practice. They worked on position and team drills covering virtually all aspects of play. A big premium this spring has been put on fundamentals and ball control. A couple of drills were practices that focused on holding onto the ball, which plagued the team last season.
The offense and defense both have been working to lay down the basics of their plans for the fall football season. Coaches will disect the video to evaluate players and make decisions on who will receive increasing numbers of reps in the remaining spring practices and when fall camp begins in August.
Coach Jones commented that the team came back with intensity after over a week off. “It was good,” head coach Joey Jones said after practice. “I thought we had a great practice. The kids came back ready to go. They really retained a lot of the things they have learned the first five practices, which was good. We added some stuff offensively and defensively, so we made progress today.”
In the first five practices, coach Jones said that he and his staff kept them really simple to focus on fundamentals and to easily retain what they worked on. Now they are building upon that foundation. “We actually added things in today, which was good because obviously there are areas we need to work on,” Jones explained. “The coaches have done a great job of presenting it in a progressive way where they could learn it, they are not just throwing things at the kids. The way the coaches are teaching has helped the players on the field.”
During the practice they worked on individual skill drills before the first team offense began working on screen plays, which was followed by inside run drills. During that time, wide receivers and defensive backs worked in one-on-one drills.
A period of 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills lasted around 15 minutes before a segment of full team work. During the full team workout, they practiced on first, second and third down plays.
Split up in different segments of practice they worked on different special teams as they focused on punts, punt returns and field goals. Scott Garber and Logan Gunn both had standout punts during the punting session. Coach Jones, Coach Vincent and a number of Graduate Assistants worked with the players during the special teams workouts since no one has been designated as the special teams coach.
The Jags only have a total of nine practice sessions left including their annual Red-Blue spring game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, April 6. They will return to the practice field on Thursday morning at 6am, Saturday morning at 9:45am which Jones indicated would be a scrimmage and Sunday at 3pm at the practice fields on campus.
They have two practice sessions next week prior to another scrimmage on Saturday, March 30.
Goldstein Cleared To Play Just In Time For CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament
Freddie Goldstein medically cleared to play after missing seven weeks with a broken collarbone. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Freddie Goldstein was cleared to play for the Jaguars in the CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament.
Goldstein suffered a broken collarbone against Western Kentucky on January 24 at the Mitchell Center. At first the injury looked to have ended his senior season but after seven weeks of watching from the sidelines, he was cleared by team doctors on Monday. The Jags will travel to play Tulane in New Orleans on Wednesday in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com tournament.
Goldstein started 17 of 18 games prior to his injury while averaging 8.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game with 45 assists. Interim head coach Jeff Price is happy to have Goldstein back, as are fans. it is unknown how much time he may see in the game against Tulane after finally hitting the court with the team on Monday. But if the Jaguars advance, it is expected with more practice time he could see more playing time.
But that depends on the Jaguars advancing in the tournament.
The Jags and the Green Wave are set to tip-off at 7pm.
USA Softball’s Fowler Name SBC Player of the Week
Brittany Fowler named SBC Softball Player of the Week on March 18, 2013 after going 6-of-8 and three home runs on Saturday against #22 ULL. | Photo by usajaguars.com
Brittany Fowler of the South Alabama Softball team was named Sun Belt Conference softball Player of the Week. This comes after her performance this past week against #22 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette.
Fowler was 6-of-8 against the Ragin’ Cajuns on Saturday where the Jags won both games of the doubleheader. She had seven RBI over the weekend and scored four runs herself. Additionally she hit a grand slam in the first game Saturday then followed that up with two home runs in the second game.
This is the first honor for Fowler since February 28, 2011 during her Sophomore season and she is the third Jaguar honored so far this season.
Fowler is in the top five in the conference in runs scored with 25, home runs with six, slugging percentage at .708 and on-base percentage with .511. She also leads the team in batting average with a .375 average while holding six All-Time school records.
She currently holds the #1 spot for Runs Scored (134), Hits (184), Triples (10), Hit by Pitch (37), RBI (123) and Sacrifice Flies (7). She currently ranks 3rd in Home Runs with 23.
USA Ranked 25th In Collegiate Baseball Weekly Poll
The South Alabama Jaguars baseball team is ranked 25th in this weeks Collegiate Baseball weekly top-30 poll released on Monday.
The Jags, the only Sun Belt team ranked in the poll this week, is 17-4 overall and 2-1 in Sun Belt play. This is the second time this season the team has been ranked in the top-30 poll released by Collegiate Baseball. It also marks the highest ranking in the poll since May 19, 2003 when the Jags reached #25 with a 39-15 record.
Last week the Jags went 3-1 in games played with a win over Alabama State and two out of three games in Troy as they opened the Sun Belt Conference schedule.
USA is ranked 12th in RPI according to Boydsworld.com and warrennolan.com as they travel to Southeastern Louisiana for a midweek game tonight as first pitch is scheduled for 6pm.
Below is the full top-30 poll as released by Collegiate Baseball on Monday.
1. North Carolina 18-1
2. Oregon State 19-1
3. Louisiana St. 18-2
4. Vanderbilt 19-2
5. South Carolina 17-3
6. Mississippi 20-2
7. Florida St. 18-1
8. Kentucky 16-3
9. UCLA 15-3
10. Georgia Tech 17-2
11. Virginia 17-2
12. Cal. St. Fullerton 16-3
13. Louisville 16-2
14. Mississippi St. 19-4
15. Oregon 15-6
16. N.C. State 16-5
17. Stanford 10-5
18. Oklahoma 17-4
19. Notre Dame 12-5
20. Cal Poly 15-4
21. Oklahoma St. 17-3
22. Arizona St. 12-4-1
23. U.C. Irvine 15-5
24. Texas A&M 14-7
25. South Alabama 17-4
26. Florida Gulf Coast 13-4
27. California 13-7
28. Arkansas 14-7
29. Campbell 16-3
30. Central Arkansas 17-3
South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
The South Alabama Jaguars clinched the series against Troy with an 11-10 win on Friday night and a 7-5 win on Saturday but fell in the third game 7-8 as they were unable to complete the sweep in the conference opener.
USA scored seven unanswered runs in the final two innings which included a game-winning home run by Nick Zaharion to bring home the 11-10 win.
On Saturday, Dylan Stamey tossed 4 1/3 shutout innings in relief while Kyle Bartsch pitched a perfect ninth inning as the Jags won 7-5 and clinch the series against Troy on Saturday. Stamey allowed one hit and one walk while striking out a career-high five batters he faced to earn his fourth win of the season. Bartsch struck out one in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.
The Jags gave up five runs in the seventh inning as they fell to Troy 7-8 in the Sunday finale against the Trojans. The Jags held a 5-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning but an error allowed the Trojans to cut the lead to 5-4. Then a two-run double would put the Trojans in the lead 5-6. Then one batter later a three-run home run would put the Jags up 8-5.
USA would score two more runs in the game but could not manufacture another run to tie the game up. The Jags improve to 17-4 overall over the weekend and 2-1 in Sun Belt play while Troy falls to 12-6 overall and 1-2 in Sun Belt play.
USA will travel to Hammond, Louisiana to take on Southeastern Louisiana University on Tuesday with first pitch set for 6pm.
Softball
The South Alabama softball team won two out the three games over the weekend against #22 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette at Jaguar Field by scores of 7-3 and 8-4.
Senior Brittany Fowler batted .833 with three home runs, four runs scored and seven RBI on Saturday alone. She went 5-for-6 with a slugging percentage of 2.333.
Hannah Campbell and Farish Beard each pitched complete games on Saturday. Hannah struck out two to improve to 10-4 on the season while Beard struck out three and only allowed four hits to improve to 10-0 on the season.
The Jags fell 1-2 in the third game of the series on Sunday as Kaitlyn Griffith hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to give the Jags an early lead. ULL took the lead for good with a two-run fourth inning.
Ragin’ Cajun pitcher Jordan Wallace struck out 15 Jaguars on the way to the win.
The Jags improve to 23-5 overall over the weekend and 2-1 in Sun Belt play. ULL comes out of the weekend with a 19-11 record overall and 2-4 in conference play.
The Lady Jaguars will host UAB on Wednesday with a first pitch set for 4pm at Jaguar Field. They previously defeated the Blazers 8-2 on March 2 in the Magic City Classic.
Men’s Basketball
The season isn’t quite over just yet. The Jags will participate in the postseason for the first time in five years after accepting a spot in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
The Jags will face the Green Wave of Tulane on Wednesday at Devlin Fieldhouse in Louisiana. Tipoff is set for 7pm.
This is the fifth year for the CIT and it’s 32 team tournament. Previous winners of the tournament are Old Dominion (2009), Missouri State (2010), Santa Clara (2011) and Mercer (2012).
Interim head coach Jeff Price’s tenure on the court with be extended at least one more game. The Jags are in the midst of a coaching search for the head coaching position, which Price is also vying for.
The Jags are 17-12 on the season and went 14-6 in Sun Belt play. Tulane has a 19-14 record overall, it’s best since the 1999-2000 season.
Women’s Basketball
In a bit of a surprise on Friday, Athletics Director Joel Erdmann announced that he had relieved head coach Rick Pietri of his duties after 13 seasons at the helm of the women’s program.
“We will begin a national search immediately and look far and wide and near and far for who the next coach will be,” Erdmann said to AL.com. “It will be very similar to other searches that we have conducted. Obviously, we are looking for someone who has ties to competitive success and winning, while at the same time maintaining their eye on excellence in the classroom and managing a tremendous overall program.”
Pietri, in a phone interview with AL.com was very grateful of former AD Joe Gottfried for hiring a boys’ high school coach in 2000 to take over a women’s program that had struggled for several years. He also indicated that only one of his seasons was not better than the 10 season’s previous to his.
Pietri leaves as the school’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 220-167 and 111-104 record against Sun Belt Conference opponents. He had three 20-win seasons, the most recent in the 2008-09 season.
Erdmann indicated that he hopes to have a new coach hired as soon as possible. Possibly as soon as April.
The Lady Jags went 17-13 overall this season and fell in the first round of the SBC Tournament.
Football
The Jaguar football team will pick up where they left off prior to Spring Break. They will hit the practice fields at the Jaguar Practice Facility around 6am on Tuesday morning.
Pietri Not Being Retained
Reports are surfacing that Women’s basketball coach Rick Pietri will not be retained by the University of South Alabama.
This news comes as a bit of a shock to fans of the program. We will have more as more information comes out.
Baseball And Softball Open Sun Belt Play This Weekend
South Alabama baseball and softball teams both open Sun Belt Conference play this weekend.
Baseball
The Jags open Sun Belt Play this weekend in Troy, Alabama against in-state rival Troy University. Jacob Noble (3-0) will make his fifth start of the season against the Trojans tonight and will face Tanner Hicks (3-0). First pitch is set for 6pm.
Saturday’s game is set for another 6pm first pitch with Brandon Boyle (0-1) taking the mound for the Jags as Troy is set to send Will Starling (3-1) as their starter.
Finally, the Sunday series finale is scheduled for a 1pm first pitch and is scheduled to see Jarron Cito (0-1) on the mound for the Jags and Shane McCain (3-0) taking the mound for the Trojans.
The Jags have won five of its last six games to enter the weekend with a 15-3 record this season. They also enter the weekend with a 36-28 all-time lead in the series against the Trojans while are only 10-17 all-time in Troy and is only 11-16 against the Trojans since they joined the Sun Belt in 2006.
All three games will be broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and can be accessed online at http://wnsp.com/
Softball
The Jaguar softball team opens Sun Belt Conference play against #22 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette at Jaguar Field. The Jags enter the weekend with a 21-4 record overall.
South Alabama will be tested as ULL comes into the weekend as the Sun Belt Conference leader in almost every offensive statistical category. But the Jags enter with an undefeated record at home as they have won all six home games so far this season.
Hannah Campbell tossed her first no-hitter against UC-Santa Barbara last week as the Jags won 3-0. She also is in the top-10 in the nation with an ERO of 0.90.
The last time these teams faced off it was in the Sun Belt Conference tournament where the Jags handed the five-time conference champs a 3-1 loss to win the Jaguars first Sun Belt Championship. ULL had swept the regular season series against the Jags.
South Alabama and ULL will play a doubleheader on Saturday and a series finale on Sunday. Live streaming will be available on USAJaguars.com All-Access section.
Go Jags!
Jags Offer A Trio Of Players Recently
South Alabama has offered a trio of players over the last few days. The first is a local standout in Jerry Gibson of Theodore High School. Gibson is a 6’3″ 213-pound tight end that is listed as clocking a 4.83 40-yard dash. He has offers from Arkansas State and Furman so far.
Tyre McCants is a 5’10” 184-pound wide receiver from Niceville, Florida. He is rated a three-star wide receiver by 247sports. Rivals has the following stats on him: 4.45 40-yard dash, 490-pound squat max and a vertical of 39 inches. He also has offers from FAU, Georgia Tech, ULL, Louisville, Old Dominion and the Jags.
Keiwan Jones is a 6’2″ 265-pound defensive tackle from Dunnellon, Florida. He has a two-star rating from 247sports and has offers from Old Dominion, Western Michigan as well as the Jags. He is listed as having a 30″ vertical and a 330-pound bench max. Last season he had 36 tackles, 8 sacks, three forced fumbles, a blocked pass, a touchdown and a safety.
Season Ticket Renewals Have Been Mailed
The South Alabama Jaguars celebrate their first FBS win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday, October 20th 2012.
The South Alabama Athletic Ticket Office announced that season ticket renewals have been mailed out to season ticket holders.
The 2013 season will be a huge first for the Jags as they will be eligible for the Sun Belt Conference championship and a potential bowl berth.
The Jaguars have six home games scheduled at Ladd-Peebles Stadium with five of the six teams coming to Mobile participating in bowl games last season, including four Sun Belt opponents.
The Jags will kick off the season on Thursday, August 29 against Southern Utah, Western Kentucky on September 14, Kent State on October 19,Arkansas State on November 2, Louisiana-Monroe on November 23 and the season finale against Louisiana-Lafayette on December 7.
Season ticket prices are $50 for end zone seats, $85 for the East stands and $100 for the West stands. University faculty and staff receive a discount on up to six season tickets. Priority seating may be purchased in sections C-H in the West stands with a contribution to the Jaguar Athletic Fund.
Information about road games will be available on May 1. Call the USA Athletic Ticket Office at 251.461.1USA to renew or purchase new season tickets.
Go Jags!