Sun Belt Tournament

Wolves fall short against No. 1 seed

Arkansas State beat Austin Bembowski when the teams met during the regular season in Jonesboro.

When the stakes were higher, ASU couldn't get much going against the junior right-hander from South Alabama.

Sun Belt Tournament

at Troy, Ala.

SATURDAY’S SCORES

South Alabama 7, Arkansas State 3

Louisiana-Lafayette 3, Texas State 0

Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Texas State (n)

TODAY’S GAME

South Alabama vs. Louisiana-Lafayette/Texas State, 1 p.m.

Bembowski held ASU to six hits over 8 1/3 innings Saturday while pitching top-seeded South Alabama into today's Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship game with a 7-3 victory at Riddel-Pace Field in Troy, Ala.

Bembowski, who allowed three runs April 4 in a 4-1 loss to ASU, didn't allow a run through six innings Saturday and the Jaguars took a 7-0 lead before the Red Wolves scored all three runs in the final three innings.

The loss eliminated the Red Wolves from the conference tournament, ending their season at 27-30.

Needing to beat South Alabama twice Saturday to advance to today's final, ASU fell into a 1-0 deficit before starter Adam Grantham gave up a hit. Cole Billingsley walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly to give South Alabama a lead it never gave up.

Grantham didn't give up another run but didn't get out of the second inning, when he was relieved by Cody Jackson with two outs. Jackson worked out of that inning and pitched a scoreless third before Adam Ballew scored on a fielder's choice in the fourth and then hit an RBI single in the fifth to give the Jaguars a 3-0 lead.

Jackson and Coulton Lee kept ASU close until the seventh inning, when South Alabama broke open the game.

Ballew hit a two-out double and scored on Daniel Martinez' double before Matt Bolger hit an RBI double and Cole Gleason scored on a throwing error on the play. Then Jared Barnes singled in Bolger to give South Alabama a 7-0 lead.

ASU finally scored in the bottom of the seventh when Tanner Ring singled and later scored on a wild pitch. Zach George hit a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the ninth to extend his on-base streak to 74 consecutive games in the final game of his career.

Collin Massanelli went 2 for 4 for the Red Wolves, who won two games in the conference tournament for the sixth consecutive season.

Sports on 05/24/2015

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