Southern snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak Sunday against Nicholls State and while it wasn’t enough to pull out a victory, it might be just the boost the Jaguars need.
The visiting Colonels got a grand slam from Jaden Collura to break the game open and take a 9-5 victory at Lee Hines Field.
Nicholls State had thumped the Jaguars 12-0 and 10-0 in the past two days, both games shortened to seven innings by the mercy rule.
Sunday’s game looked like it might end in similar fashion after Collura’s big hit made it 6-0 in the sixth and the Colonels added single runs in the seventh and eighth. But the Jaguars came up with their biggest inning of the season in the bottom of the eighth, scoring five times on three hits.
The big blow was a two-run double by first baseman Dylan Jones. Quincy Smith contributed a run-scoring single, Khyle Radcliffe a sacrifice fly and KJ White got the other run home when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Incredibly, Southern had the tying run at the plate when Marcus Sanders, who started the inning with a double, fouled out to end the rally.
“We finally started putting things together, something we’ve talked about a lot, getting timely hits,” Jones said. “All season it has been frustrating. We’re trying to figure out how we can do better. We have to keep working, we’re a new team, and now we see things finally starting to click. How to play together, how to pick each other up. It’s starting to show what we’re capable of.”
Southern (3-7) has struggled on offense all season while also dealing with injuries to three of their top hitters. The Jaguars have scored three runs or fewer in six of their 10 games
“We were struggling to get the timely hit this weekend,” Jaguars coach Chris Crenshaw said. “They made pitches; we didn’t have good at bats when we needed to. To put that five-spot up there should give us some confidence going into Tuesday and leading to next weekend.
The Jaguars got another decent pitching effort from starter Drew Lasseigne (0-2), who allowed one earned run through the first five innings. In the sixth, he gave up three singles, one of them a chop at the plate that stayed just fair on the foul line, before Collura’s grand slam off the scoreboard in right field.
“That was my first three ball count of the day and that’s something I’ve been hard on myself on,” said Lasseigne, who allowed 10 hits and didn’t walk a batter. “Walks are runs, at the end of the day. Most games you look back and however many you walk is how many they score. He ran across one and did a good job. You have to stay ahead of guys and make them beat you instead of beating yourself.”
Southern had seven hits by seven players and four of them were doubles.
“We have been in every game until the fifth or sixth inning,” Crenshaw said. “I’ll take it where we can get it right now. We’re trying to teach the team how to win and play team baseball. Hopefully we can take something from this weekend.”
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