MOBILE, Ala. (4/11/14) – The Arkansas State baseball was shutout for just the fourth time this season as South Alabama took the first game of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series 5-0 Friday at Stanky Field.
The Jaguars' starting pitcher Locke St. John (4-1) blanked the Red Wolves for 7.0 innings, gave up just three hits and struck out two.
The four Arkansas State (18-16, 8-5 SBC) hits were each singles and came from Matt Burgess, Zach Maggio, Kaleb Brown an Austin Baker. Burgess, Kaleb Brown and Eric Wilcoxson were the only A-State base runner to advance past first base off St. John was never in pressured on the night and was able to work quickly throughout his outing.
The Jaguars (16-17, 5-7 SBC) collected nine hits off Arkansas State pitchers, including four off David Owen (4-2) in the first inning. Owen lasted just 2.1 innings, his shortest outing of the season, and gave up five runs on seven hits but did strikeout five.
South Alabama scored three runs with two outs in the first inning after Owen gave up four straight singles that culminated with a two-run single to Matt Wojcienchowski. The Jaguars extended the lead with a run in the second inning after Hayden Jones reached an error by Lucas Feddersen at third base and came around to score on an RBI single by Cameron Cummings to push the lead to 4-0.
South Alabama tacked on another run in the third inning after Owen gave up a leadoff double to Wojcienchowski and then allowed him to score on an RBI single from Drew LaBounty to give the Jaguars a 5-0 advantage.
Colton Kibler came on in relief and tossed 3.2 innings of shutout baseball to give the deficit at five runs. Kibler issued just one hit and one walk in his second longest pitching stint of the season.
Game two of the series will be Saturday, April 12 with first-pitch set for 6:30 p.m. The game can be heard on 95.3FM The Ticket/970AM KNEA and in the StateZone at AStateRedWolves.com
For in-game updates follow @AStateGameDay on Twitter and stay up to date with A-State baseball by following the team on Twitter (@AStateBaseball) and Facebook (Facebook.com/RedWolvesbaseball).
