Southern’s game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff started as a slugfest, became a pitcher’s duel and ended in a blowout while also ending the Jaguars’ five-game winning streak.
The Lions scored six runs in the eighth to snap a 5-5 tie and poured it on in the ninth for a 17-8 victory at Lee-Hines Stadium on Saturday.
UAPB, the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s No. 1 hitting team, pounded out 24 hits after getting 15 the night before to even the series. The teams get together again at 1 p.m. Sunday for the series finale.
Southern coach Chris Crenshaw said his team can carry some momentum into that game. The Jaguars went scoreless with one hit from the fourth inning until the ninth, when a three-run homer by Dylan Jones made the final score look a little more respectable.
“That’s why the score is the way it is,” said Crenshaw, referring to his team’s bats going cold. “We had some terrible at-bats in those middle innings that led to what went on. We had one where he had a bad at-bat and carried it over to defense and it snowballed.
“They (UAPB) hit the ball today, all over the field.”
Southern (13-14, 7-2 SWAC) was right in it thanks to a good effort by starting pitcher Drew Lasseigne, who weathered 15 hits in six innings and pitched out of trouble thanks to a season-high six strikeouts and two double plays.
Freshman reliever Genesis Prosper had a 1-2-3 seventh inning, but his error opened the door for the Lions to take control. Malachi Jeffries doubled to lead off, and Jalyn Williams hit a sacrifice bunt between third base and the mound. Prosper had a good chance to field the ball and make a play on Jeffries but fumbled it. Moments later, he threw a wild pitch to break the tie for good.
Carlos Rodrigues-Velez doubled home Williams, and Darrius Brown singled through a drawn-in infield to score two more.
“He let their dugout get to him,” Crenshaw said of Prosper. “They were chirping at him, and he decided he wanted to talk back and it didn’t work out in his favor.”
At one point, the umpires issued a bench warning to both dugouts.
Early on, the game looked like a carbon copy of the night before. UAPB (12-19, 3-8) ripped Lasseigne for five hits and three runs in the first inning. Southern responded with one and tied it with two more in the second on a squeeze bunt by KJ White and a run-scoring double by Kameron Byrd.
An error by White led to two unearned runs for the Lions in the fourth, but Southern’s Khyle Radcliffe tied the game in the bottom half with a two-run double.
Radcliffe had two of Southern’s nine hits and also had a pair of stellar plays in the outfield, throwing out a runner at home trying to score on a sacrifice fly in the first inning and making a diving catch to end another inning.
“We have to stay consistent,” Radcliffe said of the Jaguars’ middle-innings slump. “We did a better job in the ninth inning. They’re not a bad team — 24 hits, 17 runs — you’ve got to give it to them.
“We practice that stuff every day. It should be second nature to us now. We get a second chance to win another ball game tomorrow.”