By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com

MOBILE, Ala. - The defending Sun Belt Conference champion South Alabama Jaguars pulled out a pair of 4-3 wins on Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader and clinching the series against UT Arlington at Stanky Field.

The Jaguars (14-5, 5-0 SBC) got a complete game from reigning SBC Pitcher of the Year Kevin Hill in Game 1 and then a walk-off double from Travis Swaggerty with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to complete the day's sweep. The losses spoiled otherwise quality starts from UTA (10-10, 2-3 SBC) starters Joel Kuhnel and Kadon Simmons, each of whom went 7.2 innings.

The teams will finish out the series on Sunday at noon at Stanky Field in the finale with lefty Adam Meyer scheduled to get the start for the Mavs.

Game 1 | Box Score
Kuhnel struck out a career high nine batters in 7.2 innings, allowing just six hits on the day; however, five of those hits came in a four-run third inning, which was enough for the Jaguars to pick up a 4-3 win.

Hill went the distance for USA, improving to 4-1 on the season while Kuhnel fell to 3-2 with the loss. The Mavs out-hit the Jags 9-6 for the game, but Hill was able to limit the damage with nine punchouts of his own in tossing his second complete game of the year.

UTA got a pair of hits apiece from Darien McLemore and Noah Vaughan, and two RBI from Jerame Littell; but the Mavs were not able to take advantage of three USA errors or a season-high three walks from Hill, leaving 10 men on base for the game.

The Mavs were not able to do anything with a pair of 2-out hits in the first, or a one-out double from Vaughan in the second; however, after two quick innings against Kuhnel, the Jaguars got things going in their half of the third. A leadoff double from Brendan Donovan started things off, and after a sacrifice bunt USA plated three runs on four consecutive hits, including an RBI double from Swaggerty and a bad-bouce single from Drew LaBounty.

UTA answered a half inning later, though, getting to Hill for a pair to cut the lead in half. Jackson Morris started the rally with a 1-out walk, followed by singles from McLemore and Vaughan to load the bases. Hill then uncorked a wild pitch to score Morris, and one pitch later Littell lifted a sacrifice fly into deep right-center field to score McLemore.

Jacob Moreland struck out the only runner he faced in the bottom of the eighth after relieving Kuhnel with a man on base, and Matt McLean got the tying runner on base to open the ninth when he led off with a single against Hill. But the Jaguar righty bore down and retired the next three hitters to close things out.

Game 2 | Box Score
Josh Minjarez broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single with two outs in the top of the ninth, but South Alabama responded with two runs to walk off with its second 4-3 victory of the day on a double from Swaggerty in the nightcap.

Simmons and USA starter Hunter Soleymani went stride for stride for the majority of the night with both pitchers taking no-decisions. The Jags' starter only struck out a single batter, but scattered eight hits in a career-best 8.1 innings while Simmons fell just one out shy of tossing 8.0 frames for the third consecutive start. The junior righty scattered seven hits of his own, while walking just one and striking out five.

USA reliever James Traylor picked up his third win of the day, striking out the only batter he faced after entering following Minjarez's single. Daniel James took the loss for UTA, allowing two runs on two hits with a strikeout in 0.2 innings.

The UTA offense came out swinging in Game 2 with three straight singles to open up the game. The third, a single from Cox, extended his hit streak to 12 games and scored McLean to put the Mavs up 1-0.

But South Alabama brought hot bats with them into the second game as well, scoring twice in the bottom of the first on RBI groundouts from LaBounty and Danny Martinez.

UTA tied it up one inning later, getting a one-out single from Vaughan and eventually scoring him two batters later on a fielder's choice by Christian Hollie.

From there the starters locked things down with Simmons only allowing two batters to reach base in the next four innings. The Jags got the go-ahead runner as far as third when Billingsley singled and stole two bases, but Simmons responded with strikeout of LaBounty after a 10-pitch at-bat to leave him stranded.

The Mavs had a threat of their own in the visiting half of the sixth when Colton Turner led off the inning with a double and pinch runner TJ Hillman moved to third on a grounder to the right side by McLemore. But South Alabama drew the infield in and Soleymani got Vaughan to hit a one-hop smash to shortstop and Littell popped out to end the threat.

Simmons kept it going until the bottom of the eighth when Martinez chased him after a two-out double to left-center. The Mavs turned once again to Moreland who got Ben Gann to ground out softly to first base to keep things tied going into the ninth.

The Mavs then took the lead when Minjarez, in his first at-bat of the game, singled up the middle off of Dolloff to score Vaughan, who had reached on his second hit of the day with one out in the inning. But UTA could not hold onto that lead as Jaguar designated hitter Carter Perkins dropped a single in front of a diving McLean to open up the inning and quickly moved to second on a wild pitch. James sandwiched a pop out and a strikeout around a hit batter and had Swaggerty in a 2-1 count before the USA left fielder shot a fly ball into the left-center field gap that found the turf between two Maverick defenders, allowing both runners to score and the Jags to walk off with the win.