SAN MARCOS, Tex. -South Alabama reduced the Texas State offense for the second day in a row to secure the rubber match, 3-1.
John Gillis only expected to pitch three innings when he first entered the ballpark today. After recording the first two outs, he pitched into a single opposite the shift and an RBI double into foul territory, the only run the Jaguar pitching staff allowed today. Gillis went on to throw for 5.0 innings with three strikeouts to his name. Jaxon Shineflew was just as dominant, loading up his fastball at 91 and going for 3.0 innings, only allowing one hit and one walk, while tying his career-high four strikeouts.
During Gillis' tenure on the mound, Duncan Mathews shot out his second career extra-base hit and Will Turner found his way to first with a walk. Lucas Ismaili loaded the bases with a slap that the second baseman was unable to field cleanly, which allowed Micah Morgan to put a ball in play to send Mathews home. A solo shot to left by Lucas Ismaili in the fifth inning elevated the Jags into the lead, with Ethan Melton following suit in the sixth.
Grant Wood followed up Shineflew in the save scenario. A full-count single out of the shift put the Bobcats' leadoff on, but a fielders' choice sent him back to the dugout in the next at bat. A popup left South Alabama one out away from the win, but the Jags were not in the clear yet as the next batter dropped a single into shallow left. Wood battled with the next hitter into a full count before setting up a groundout to JG Bell to clinch the win.
Winning Pitcher:John Gillis (2-0)
Save:Grant Wood (8)
Losing Pitcher:Drayton Brown (0-3)
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi
On Gillis' debut, the pitching this weekend, and the team's overall performance:I brought Gillis in my room last night, and he knew why I brought him in. I asked him why he thought he was in my room. He's like, "because you're telling me I'm starting tomorrow", and I'm like, "great answer. Here's the deal. We just need the best three to nine outs. If you give us seven outs and you keep us right there, then great. We just need to get off to a good start. Knowing Gillis and how hard he's worked, I can't even say I'm surprised at what he did today. He's just an ultimate competitor. He's worked extremely hard. You know, he's coming off Tommy John's two years ago. He's had some injuries, bicep tendonitis and the kid is just a warrior out there. All our pitchers, Shineflew stepped up, made the necessary adjustments that he needed to make and Woody, he walked the tight wire but got it done again. He was aggressive 94 to 96 and closed it out, but our pitchers today man, we didn't give them much wiggle room and they answered the call. They were just nasty. They were a bunch of dogs out there on the mound this weekend, all weekend long. We pitched great. You know they got some good arms and we had a couple of balls today. Duncan's ball goes way out, if not for the wind. I think we still would have won two out of three, but we would have had five, six, seven more hits with a couple of them being some home runs, but I'll take it.Our guys had our backs against the wall losing Friday night. We played hard, it just didn't go our way and in the rubber match, winning 3-1 on Sunday, that's a rarity in college baseball, having a pitcher's duel on Sunday, but our guys answered the bell and our hitters did just enough. Micah with the rollover ground ball, they all count, and then Ismaili and Melton with the solo home runs, and we played really good defense. So, just extremely proud of our guys and you know, up and down. We've got four more weekends of this and I think you can start to see there's a little identity; there has been an identity offensively for a while, but when when Sully went down, our mindset is: we play for a run an inning when we can we get the leadoff guy on, which we did not do a good job of Friday. Much better job of it the following day. That's still the key for us. It's getting guys on, and if we got to we'll play for a run every inning when we get the leadoff guy on we'll do what we got to do and and then every now and again you hit a couple of home runs and hopefully have some guys on. We have some capable hitters and until some guys can get rolling and we can really put it together this is how we're going to play. We call it dirty baseball and our guys have bought into it and they know they're expecting it. Lucas Ismaili, Will Turner, etc. are expecting to put a bunt down. Everyone in our lineup is expected to do what they need to do to help us win a baseball game and move a runner up 90 feet. I can't say enough about our guys and just their competitiveness and how hard they played this weekend.
UP NEXT
South Alabama returns to Stanky Field for a major in-conference series against James Madison, starting Friday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m.
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