While it might look like Southern baseball had a dismal weekend against Nicholls State, Jaguars coach Chris Crenshaw is looking at the silver lining.
Southern lost all three games, was outscored 31-5 and managed only 16 hits combined. Two games went seven innings via the mercy rule and the Jaguars committed four errors.
Sunday’s game did provide a ray of sunshine when the Jaguars got back into it with their biggest inning of the season — five runs on three hits. They even brought the tying run to the plate. The late burst is good news for the Jaguars going into Tuesday’s game against Southern University of New Orleans at Lee Hines Field at 6 p.m.
When Crenshaw spoke to his team after the game he pointed to the other side of the field at Nicholls State for comparison.
“The difference this weekend is that team (Nicholls) won a championship … returned 30 players and was playing a team with 20 new players trying to figure out how to win,” Crenshaw said. “Every time they got a guy to second base with no outs, the hitters did their job and scored the run. We’ve got to get to that point.”
The Jaguars do have time to get better before Southwestern Athletic Conference play starts. After SUNO, they will get an indication when they play host to Alabama State in a nonconference series.
Sunday’s game wasn’t all bad. The Jaguars defense turned in a nice relay play to throw a runner out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple. They consistently hit the ball hard and had some bad luck, but they hit too many easy fly balls.
Starting pitcher Drew Lasseigne didn’t pitch badly, allowing one earned run through five innings. He then allowed a grand slam on a 3-1 count in the sixth to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 6-0 hole.
“Drew has been a tough-luck pitcher in all three starts,” Crenshaw said. “It’s always one pitch here or one play there. He’s tough, he’s solid. We’ve got to figure out something to make more plays behind him.
“We had a chance to put a zero up and then found a way to throw the ball away. I tell them all the time winning is hard, but it’s harder when you stack errors on top of mistakes, walks and not having good at-bats.”
Southern is going through some injury issues, too. It’s top hitter, Tyeler Hawkins (.318), is out for 1-2 weeks with a knee injury. Outfielder Logan Sanders (hamstring) and first baseman Donny Sandifer (ankle) are also out at least a week each.
“We’ve got to get healthy,” Crenshaw said. “All three of those guys hit in the middle or top of the lineup. Right now, we’re trying to learn how to win.”
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