JONESBORO, Ark. (5/19/23) – Kody Darcy reached base five times with four hits, as the Arkansas State baseball team surged past South Alabama for a series-clinching 13-6 victory Friday at Tomlinson Stadium-Kell Field.
Darcy went 4-for-4 and scored four times in the contest, as the Red Wolves (19-31, 8-19 SBC) pounded out 13 hits and took advantage of 10 walks surrendered by the Jaguars (23-30, 11-18). A-State has now won three of its last four series against USA.
In his final start of the season, Kyler Carmack (5-3) scattered seven hits and allowed just one run. Jake Henry Williams and Max Charlton pitched the sixth before Jacob Conover closed out the contest for his third save of the season.
Dylan DeButy homered and scored twice, while also driving in three runs and laying down three sacrifice bunts. Brandon Hager went 2-for-3 with a homer, two walks and four RBIs, and Wil French drove in a career-high four runs with a pair of walks and a hit.
South Alabama tallied 15 hits in the contest, led by three apiece from Erick Orbeta and Cole Ketzner. Starting pitcher Jeremy Lee (2-8) took the loss, allowing four runs on four hits while walking five in 3 2/3 innings.
Carmack stranded the bases loaded in the top of the first before Hager plated Blake Burris with a one-out single to put the Scarlet and Black on top early.
The Jaguars' lone run against the redshirt freshman right-hander came in the fourth when Ketzner doubled home Hunter Donaldson to tie it at a run apiece.
A-State answered with a three-run bottom of the fourth on a pair of bases-loaded walks and an RBI groundout by Burris to score Darcy, putting the score at 4-1 after four. Carmack worked out of another jam in the fifth – his final inning of the day – leaving runners at the corners.
After back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fifth, DeButy launched a 397-foot blast over the wall in left center field – his second of the year – to up A-State's lead to 7-1 through five.
The visitors rallied for four runs in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Orbeta and a trio of RBI singles, but the Red Wolves responded with two more runs on a single by French that drove in John Hoskyn and Darcy.
Conover rolled a double play to erase a leadoff walk in the seventh and then stranded a runner at second in the eighth.
A-State added four more runs in the eighth when French drove in Darcy with a sacrifice fly and then Hager tagged his 14th home run of the year – a three-run blast that made it 13-5. The round tripper was Hager's 24th of his career, tying him with Josh Yates (2006-07) for fourth all-time at A-State.
South Alabama picked up a run with two outs in the ninth, but Conover forced a game-ending flyout to clinch the series win.
NEXT UP
A-State looks to sweep the series against the Jaguars in Saturday's season finale, with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. The game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+, with the radio broadcast carried on FM Newstalk 102.1 KBTM/AM 1230 in Jonesboro.
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