South Alabama, Troy split baseball doubleheader, will play Game 3 Sunday

South Alabama, Troy split baseball doubleheader, will play Game 3 Sunday

South Alabama and Troy each got lights-out pitching in one game of Friday’s baseball doubleheader at Stanky Field, resulting in a split.

Leif Moore blanked the Trojans for six inning in Game 1 as the Jaguars won 5-2 in the opener. In the nightcap, Grayson Stewart allowed just an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings as the Trojans won 8-1.

Troy (30-14, 11-9 Sun Belt) came into the day one game ahead of South Alabama (22-21, 10-10) and maintained that standing with Friday’s split. With rain expected in Mobile all day Saturday, the series-deciding game won’t take place until 1 p.m. Sunday.

South Alabama 5, Troy 2 (first game of doubleheader)

The Jaguars got a dominant effort from Moore and drew 12 walks to take the series-opener.

Moore, a junior-college transfer making his first weekend start of the year, allowed just three hits and walked two with a pair of strikeouts. He did not allow a runner past second base in running his season record to 3-0.

“I thought Leif Moore was outstanding against a very good offensive club,” South Alabama coach Mark Calvi said. “We did enough offensively. … Leif was slow coming on the in the fall, had a couple of health issues and then early in the spring — nothing with his arm, but it delayed his progress. He’s been really good.

“His numbers were that of a Friday night guy tonight. His changeup was good, he threw his breaking ball in there. He really didn’t have his best fastball, but he just competed like crazy out there.”

South Alabama scored two runs in the second on Tyler Borges’ sacrifice fly and Erick Orbeta’s RBI single, then added Joseph Sullivan’s sac fly in the third to lead 3-0. Those runs came against Troy starter Brady Fuller (4-3), who allowed five hits and three walks in three innings before leaving the game due to what head coach Skylar Meade termed a lat injury.

The Trojans reached Jaguars reliever Jackson Boyd for a run in the seventh, but left the bases loaded after Zach Willingham retired sluggers William Sullivan and Shane Lewis to end the inning. Lewis lined out to center, with South Alabama’s Will Turner recovering from taking a bad angle to make a leaping grab for the third out.

Micah Morgan’s bases-loaded walk in the seventh put South Alabama back up 4-1, but Troy got to the Jaguars’ Grant Wood for Tremayne Cobb’s sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it a two-run game again. Borges delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to give South Alabama a 5-2 lead, then Colson Lawrence retired three straight in the ninth for his second save.

“When you have a game when your starter goes out with an injury, those games usually go terrible,” Meade said. “It’s a buzzkill to your team, it gets into your bullpen in the fourth inning. … We walked too many guys in the first game, though some of them were strategic in nature to get to the next guy.

“We hit some balls hard and didn’t get rewarded; Turner made an incredible play on the jumping ball in the outfield. But I think the way we approached things gave us a chance to be in that game, and allowed us to come out and get the victory in the second game.”

Troy 8, South Alabama 1 (second game of doubleheader)

In addition to Stewart’s outstanding effort on the mound, the Trojans also hit three home runs to win Game 2 with relative ease.

Caleb Bartolero struck first, a three-run shot in the first inning off South Alabama starter and losing pitcher Mitchell Heer. Lewis connected for a two-run blast — his Sun Belt-leading 20th of the season — in the fifth to make it 5-0.

South Alabama got its only run in the fifth, when Cole Ketzner reached on an error and scored on the second of two Stewart wild pitches. That would be all the offense for the Jaguars, who managed just four hits against Stewart and reliever Zach Fruit, who went the final 2 1/3.

“That’s about as good as I’ve seen (Stewart),” Meade said. “The delivery was tight on the front side, I think the extension was a little more. The offspeed was really good, but I thought the fastball command was just pin-point.

“We kind of ‘freebied’ a run that they got, but we played well across the board, caught the ball well. And then we got the two big three-run homers, which is normally a recipe for victory.”

Cobb all but put the game away with a three-run shot in the eighth off South Alabama reliever Sam Knowlton. The Jaguars loaded the bases in each the final two innings against Fruit, but did not score.

Stewart (6-2) got the win, allowing an unearned run on three hits with a walk and 10 strikeouts. Heer (3-2) took the loss, surrendering five runs (all earned) on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts in six innings.

“I thought Mitch was good, aside from the three-run homer in the first,” Calvi said. “He settled in nicely and went six. But their pitcher was tougher than our hitters in Game 2.

“Bottom line — they pitched better than we hit. They were tougher on the mound than we were in batter’s box in Game 2. And that’s something we’ll have to live with for the next 24 hours until we can come out here Sunday.”