Norton Pitches 'Jacks to 5-3 Victory over Lamar in Southland Series Opener

Friday, May 11

Nacogdoches, Texas

6:30 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

16-31, 0

Lamar

15-35, 0

Lamar

Stephen F. Austin

Photo by: Hardy Meredith | SFA Photography

Norton Pitches 'Jacks to 5-3 Victory over Lamar in Southland Series Opener

5/11/2018 10:06:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Junior works seven innings, gets backed by an RBI each from five different 'Jacks

By: Charlie Hurley | Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After seeing his Stephen F. Austin debut cut short after just one-third of an inning worth of action in the 'Jacks' third game of the season, junior right-hander Jake Norton spent some time rehabbing an injury before being placed in the team's bullpen.

Now, through his last three starts, the Waxahachie, Texas, product is fully recovered and has become the best starer among the 'Jacks' pitching staff during that span.

Norton tossed seven innings for the second time in as many starts and surrendered only one earned run as the 'Jacks downed Lamar 5-3 in the opening game of a three-game Southland Conference set at Jaycees Field.

Although he gave up seven hits to the Cardinals, Norton did not give up a walk and struck out six through his seven innings of work to improve to 2-2 on the year.

"More than anything it was the ability to get ahead of hitters that made Jake so successful tonight," commented SFA head coach Johnny Cardenas who snapped a three-game losing streak to the Cardinals. "It's true from little league all the way up to the big leagues. If you get ahead of hitters and you can expand the zone you'll be successful. That's what Jake did so well tonight. The times when he did get behind 2-0 and 3-1 Lamar was able to get some good swings off of him. When he was getting ahead of the hitters, his command was excellent."

Backed by a varied offensive attack, Norton watched five different 'Jacks register an RBI in the series-opening victory. One of those RBI came off the stick of sophomore outfielder Josh Campbell who went 3-for-3 with a run scored on the night.

Starting the Cardinals off with a steady diet of strikes, Norton needed only nine pitches to retire the visitors in order in the first and set the tone for yet another strong start with that efficient frame.

It took exactly eight pitches by Lamar starter Tanner Driskell before the 'Jacks got on the board. With one down in the home half of the first, junior Jake Georgiades unloaded on a 3-2 offering from the right-hander and launched a line drive home run to left that put the hosts on top for good. The long ball was the first of Georgiades' SFA career and made him the 10th 'Jack to go yard in 2018.

SFA added two more in its two-hit second with the first coming off the bat of Jarrod Huber who laced an RBI double down the left field line with two down. Josh Campbell started his three-hit night with an RBI single to left that plated Huber easily and put SFA up 3-0.

Although the Cardinals busted up the shutout in the third with a Cole Girouard infield RBI single, Jarrod Huber caught Girouard trying to swipe second in order to get out of the third.

Nic Minor ripped an RBI double to right-center in the home half of the fifth before Jared Martin closed the 'Jacks' scoring in the same frame with a sacrifice fly to deep center. At that point, the score read 5-1 and proved to be more than enough of a lead for Norton to work with.

After firing scoreless fourth, fifth and sixth innings, Norton ran into a slight bit of trouble in the seventh when a pair of Cardinal hits coupled with the 'Jacks' two errors allowed a pair of unearned runs to cross and trim the hosts' lead to two.

That was as close as Lamar would come, however, as SFA went to junior Jesus Gamez out of the bullpen who racked up three strikeouts over two innings to post his second save of the season.

Senior Robin Adames enjoyed the most offensive success for Lamar, going 3-for-4 with a run scored. Girouard had a two-hit night with an RBI for Lamar who has lost seven in a row. Lamar starting pitcher Tanner Driskell worked all eight innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out five.

The 'Jacks continue their series with the Cardinals at 2:00 p.m. Saturday with right-hander Trayson Kubo scheduled to get the start for SFA. Prior to the start of the game, the 'Jacks will honor their four-member senior class of Eric DeJesus, Josh Evans, Trevor Kiminski and Cole Ridgely in a pregame ceremony which is schedule to take place approximately 20 minutes before the start of the game.

-SFA-