After a rough weekend in Mobile, Alabama, the Southern University baseball team is looking to sharpen its game in the final week before entering Southwestern Athletic Conference play.
The Jaguars were outscored 44-11 by Iowa, Pepperdine and South Alabama and will try to learn from the experience for Wednesday’s visit to UNO for a 6 p.m. game.
Southern (4-7) lost to Iowa (20-8), Pepperdine (16-0) and Southern Alabama (8-3). The Jaguars swung the bats reasonably well except on Saturday when they were one-hit by Pepperdine’s Shane Tefler and Gunnar Nichols.
Jaguars coach Chris Crenshaw had lamented his pitchers’ tendency to give up walks but felt they might have overcorrected.
“We were better on Sunday, played pretty good on Friday,” Crenshaw said. “The pitcher Pepperdine threw was real good. But I thought we would have put together better at-bats than we did.
“The pitchers have to execute pitches while we’re ahead. It’s not that we’re not throwing strikes, they have to be quality strikes. Hopefully today and tomorrow, talking about it we can get some things corrected and benefit from it in the long run. We have another week to prepare for conference play. I’d like to get a couple of wins this weekend to carry over.”
Crenshaw complimented Darin Smith, Nick Wilson and Jaden Brasseaux, who threw 1⅔ scoreless innings Sunday. The Jaguars also got a boost when injured closer Enrique Ozoa returned and threw one inning (16 pitches) on Sunday.
Antoine Harris (0-2) will start against UNO, although Crenshaw will likely use several pitchers.
“I hope he (Harris) can get off to a good start, keep the game close so we can have a chance at the end,” Crenshaw said. “We’ve been starting out slow and getting ourselves into a hole. Against really good teams it’s hard to come back like we have done before.”
Jaylen Armstrong continues to lead the hitting attack. He had five hits last weekend to raise his average to .419. Khyle Radcliffe is batting .400. He and Armstrong each have stolen four bases in five attempts.
Crenshaw said All-SWAC first baseman O’Neil Burgos is showing signs of snapping out of his early-season slump. He had three hits and knocked in a pair of runs vs. Iowa.
UNO (7-4) has won six consecutive games, including a 6-5 win at Tulane, and swept Brown last weekend. They played South Alabama on Tuesday night.
The Privateers are led by second baseman Tyler Bischke, who is batting .432 with two homers and 11 RBIs. Shortstop and leadoff hitter Kasten Furr is hitting .340 with a homer and four RBIs.
After UNO, the Jagaurs go to San Antonio for a three-game weekend series against Incarnate Word beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Leave a Reply