Palmer Pilots 'Jacks into Southland Conference Tournament with Complete Game Effort

Thursday, May 16

Nacogdoches, Texas

6:30 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

23-30, 0

New Orleans

28-26, 0

New Orleans

Stephen F. Austin

Photo by: SFA Athletics

Palmer Pilots 'Jacks into Southland Conference Tournament with Complete Game Effort

5/16/2019 10:12:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Junior strikes out eight in SFA's 2-1 Southland win over New Orleans

By: Charlie Hurley | Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - All season long, the SFA baseball team has relied on the dominant right arm of junior Alex Palmer to go out and set the tone at the start of each of its series.

Thursday night, Palmer did more than set the tone. He made sure the 'Jacks would move on to the Southland Conference Tournament.

By firing SFA's first nine-inning complete game in three years, Palmer guided SFA to a 2-1 Southland Conference win over New Orleans at Jaycees Field that helped the 'Jacks lock up a spot as one of the eight teams in the 2019 Southland Conference Tournament.

New Orleans, who knocked SFA out of the 2017 Southland Conference Tournament in SFA's most recent postseason game, became the latest victim of Palmer and was knocked out of the running for the postseason thanks to the Arlington, Texas, product.

In a game that featured just 11 hits, it was SFA designated hitter Josh Campbell that came up big for the home team. The junior's 2-for-3 night at the plate culminated with an RBI single in the bottom of the third that pushed the eventual game-winning run across home plate.

SCORING SUMMARY
B2 | Jake Georgiades' one-out walk proved to be the start of something good for the 'Jacks in the third. Following that base-on-balls, Campbell and Jarrod Huber came up with back-to-back single to load the bases for Carson Clowers. The freshman sent a hard two-hopper to shortstop on the first pitch he saw from Brandon Mitchell and that was all it took for Georgiades to make it home and stake SFA to a 1-0 lead. New Orleans' shortstop Darren Willis threw out Huber at second but was unable to turn a double play which helped the 'Jacks get on the board.

B3 | A second-straight two-hit frame helped the 'Jacks push the eventual game-winning run across the board. Freshman outfielder Brandon Uhse started things with a one-out single before swiping second base. Following a five-pitch walk to Manny Vasquez, Geogaides got hit with the first pitch he saw from Mitchell to load the bases with two outs. From there, Campbell completed his two-hit day at the plate by sending a 3-1 offering from Mitchell to left for an RBI single that hiked the hosts' lead to 2-0.

T8 | One of the two innings in which the Privateers put a man in scoring position came in the eighth, but Palmer wiggled his way out of trouble. SFA's ace walked Jorge Tejada on four pitches to start the frame and things took a turn for the dramatic when Collin Morrill hammered a one-out double to the gap in right-center to put runners on second and third. The damage, fortunately, was kept to a minimum as Palmer got Wade Raburn to ground out to second base. Though that groundout allowed the Privateers to break up SFA's shutout bid, New Orleans came no closer as Pearce Howard lined out to Uhse in right field to end the inning.

AT THE DISH
• Coming up with his first multi-hit game in over one month, Campbell went 2-for-3 with an RBI while batting out of the seven-hole. He was the only SFA player to have a multi-hit game.
• Georgiades and senior outfielder Nick Daley also reached base twice. Daley drove a leadoff single through the right side in the bottom of the first and drew a walk while Georgiades was walked once and hit by a pitch.
• Raburn came up with two of the Privateers' six hits on the night while four other New Orleans players had one.
• The Privateers' one-through-four hole hitters batted 5-for-15 (.333) against Palmer, SFA's ace shut down the rest of New Orleans' lineup. New Orleans' five-through-nine hole hitters went just 1-for-17 (.059) against the right-hander.

ON THE HILL
• Palmer dazzled once again and won his second-straight Southland Conference outing to even his 2019 record at 6-6. In the first nine-inning complete game by a Lumberjack pitcher since 2016, Palmer gave up one run on six hits and a pair of walks.
• The junior's final line also included eight strikeouts, pushing his season total to 99. No SFA pitcher has racked up 100 strikeouts in a single season, but Palmer has a good chance to do so next week when he makes his postseason debut in the Southland Conference Tournament.
• Mitchell (3-4) dropped below the .500 mark by suffering an extremely tough loss. The freshman fired seven innings of two-run ball and struck out three. He led up all five of SFA's hits as well as both of the 'Jacks' walks while hitting a batter.

ON DECK
• The 'Jacks and Privateers resume their three-game series Friday evening at Jaycees Field with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m. SFA goes in search of its first Southland series win in the month of May and will send right-hander Trayson Kubo to the hill who is also looking to secure his first pitching victory this month, too.

CARDENAS' COMMENTS
On the decision to let Alex Palmer go for a nine-inning complete game | "We've had hit pitch count up to 113 or 115 at times and the way he was pitching tonight I felt like he had earned the right through the course of the year and all the work he has done to pitch us into the Southland Conference Tournament. You're trying to use the bullpen as little as possible with the Tournament looming, but we definitely didn't have a plan of leaving anybody out there. He was just that good and we felt comfortable with him going out and getting those last few outs.
On Josh Campbell's three-hit night and on both of SFA's RBI coming from the bottom of the order | "We did a good job early but we have to do a better job late of making adjustments at the plate and not giving at-bats away. When we get a lead, we get a little anxious and swing at pitches out of the zone while we're trying to turn up the heat by being more aggressive. Really, we need to be a little bit more patient in those situations and see if we can't get the pitcher to make a mistake.
On SFA's defense | "Our guys have done a great job in the infield when it comes to keeping us in games. Coach [Caleb] Clowers has done a phenomenal job at making sure our infielders are always in the right position when it comes to facing different hitters. What has really been the difference for us is the ability to move guys, make pitches and have those guys be prepared when it comes time to lay it all out there.
On SFA's goals through the rest of the series | "Now we have to try to win two more games so we can give ourselves the best possible seed. I haven't looked at things all that close, but as tightly packed as the conference is at the moment we need to be focused through the rest of the weekend so we can move up. As we've seen all year, it really doesn't matter what seed you are because it's going to be tough in Sugar Land.