University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Claim South Alabama Baseball Title
2/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Eagles Claim South Alabama Baseball Title
Mobile, Ala. - After getting off to a slow start in the South Alabama Coca-Cola Classic, Southern Miss' baseball Golden Eagles fought all the way back to claim the tournament championship, after a decisive 8-0 victory over host South Alabama, at Stanky Field on the South Alabama campus Sunday afternoon.
In addition, to winning the team title, sophomore catcher Brad Willcutt claimed the Most Valuable Player trophy after going 4-for-5 in Sunday's final game. He had three doubles and a home run, drove in three runs and scored three runs.
After winning at South Alabama for the first time since the 2000 season, Southern Miss now is 5-2, while the Jaguars dropped to 3-5. Following today's game, Southern Miss goes to Ole Miss for a 6:30 p.m., Tuesday game before returning home for a three-game weekend series against Louisiana Tech. Friday's game is set for 4 p.m., with Saturday's game starting at noon and Sunday's at 1 p.m.
Southern Miss opened the rain-delayed tournament on a sour note, losing 5-1 to Northwestern in a Saturday morning game that was postponed from Friday night after day-long rain washed out the opening day schedule. Head Coach Corky Palmer's team quickly bounced back with a come-from-behind 13-12 victory over St. John's, to set up today's title game against USA.
The Golden Eagles pounded out 13 hits, and rode a strong pitching performance from Stephen Castleman to victory over the Jaguars. Castleman improved to 1-0 with a strong seven-inning performance. He gave up eight hits, walked only three and struck out six. John Nicholas threw the final two innings, giving up three hits and striking out four.
Southern Miss struck quickly with a pair of runs in the second inning and three more in the third for what proved to be a safe 5-0 lead. The Golden Eagles tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning and another in the eighth, while the Castleman-Nicholas combo kept the Jaguars off the scoreboard. So effective was the pitching duo that South Alabama had 11 hits and could not score. The Jags stranded 14 baserunners.
In addition to Willcutt's performance, Jason Lowery and Jeff Cook and Jarrett Hoffpauir each had doubles and Matt Shepherd added a triple. Cook's three doubles pushed his season total to six. Lowery and Hoffpauir also had singles to go with their doubles. South Alabama collected 11 hits, all singles. T.J. Touchstone led the Jaguars with three hits in five trips to the plate, and Cole Craig was the only other South Alabama players with two hits.
