A Long Way to the Mountain Top: Men’s Baseball

Lee Hines Stadium was the place to be as the Southern University Men’s Baseball Team had their home opener against the McNeese State Cowboys. The Jaguars’ record was sitting at around .500 as they looked to add to their win total. Under the bright lights, the Jaguars battled for nine intense innings. Although the crowd lacked the energetic atmosphere they’ve shown in previous games, the Jags maintained close competition throughout the afternoon.

In the early innings, the Jaguars did trail the Cowboys in hits and runs batted in (RBIs), resulting in an early lead for McNeese that was maintained throughout the match. Head Coach, Chris Crenshaw, expressed, “at the start of the game, we weren’t executing at all.” The third inning became the breakaway for the Cowboys due to them accumulating five runs off of four hits. McNeese was able to spark up momentum from their runs earned and did not cool down until the sixth inning. Their final point scored was a run that was crushed into left field by Cowboys senior catcher, Kade Hunter.

The critical factor that allowed McNeese to hold onto their lead, and slow down Southern’s steam, was phenomenal pitching from the Cowboy’s starter. McNeese’s starting pitcher, senior Burrel Jones, produced seven strikeouts over only five innings pitched. The Cowboys’ relief pitchers’ performances were not as great as their starters, but they still managed to strike out four batters while propelling themselves even further in the lead over the Jaguars. However, Southern’s bullpen put on a show by earning fifteen strikeouts.

Southern’s Sophomore pitcher, Perry Kyles, battled McNeese for three innings obtaining five strikeouts and only allowed four runs to be scored off of him. Also, in the final innings, the Jaguars’ bullpen executed pitches with a precision lower in the batting zone, which resulted in no hits. Unfortunately, the Jaguars did ultimately lose this matchup with the final score being 10-3. Despite such a heavy loss, there were still positive takeaways from the game. According to Coach Crenshaw, four players were starting for the first time and managed to withstand the immense pressure of the moment and competition at hand. When asked what his opinion was on the players that made their big debut and received in-game experience, Coach Crenshaw optimistically stated that, “hopefully it’ll pay off in the long run”!

Next up on the plate for Southern is the South Alabama Invitational! The Jaguars will be traveling to Mobile, Alabama, on March 3rd, where they will be taking on three teams over the next three days. The Jaguars will begin their crusade with the University of Iowa, where the first pitch will be thrown at noon at Stanky Field. The following games in the tournament will be against Pepperdine University, and the University of South Alabama. Hopefully, the Jaguars will be able to achieve a full sweep in the tournament. In addition, they hope to continue progressing through their season successfully. Coach Crenshaw conveyed that there is nothing that the Jaguar nation needs to fear, and, “things will start clicking for us”!