USF baseball earned its first series win of 2014 Sunday afternoon, dropping game one to William Jewell 6-4 before a stellar pitching performance from Noah Coleman lifted the Cougars (4-3, 0-0 NSIC) to a 3-1 victory in the finale.

The Cougars took three of four games from the Cardinals (2-5), in a weekend series that was played at Tech Field, home of the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys.

Senior Ryan Fobes went 3-for-7 today with a run scored to lead the charge at the plate, while Noah Durkin added two hits to improve his team-high batting average to .407.

One bad inning doomed the Cougars in the opener.

Anthony Lopez came out on top after a 10-pitch at-bat in the top of the first, drawing a lead-off walk before moving into scoring position with Ryan Fobes' sacrifice. Sophomore Noah Durkin kept swinging his hot bat and roped a right field single that plated Lopez. Trevor Crow singled and Jeremy Varner's bunt single was mishandled by WJC starting pitcher Drew Mitrisin, allowing Durkin to score and put USF in front 2-0. The Cougars threatened for more but a trailing Crow was thrown out at the plate and Dylan Dwyer flied out in foul territory to end the inning.  

Cougar starter Eric Brothers notched back-to-back strikeouts and sent the Cardinals down in order in the bottom of the frame. WJC cashed in on a messy sequence including a Cougar error and passed ball to plate its first run in the bottom of the second.  

USF combusted in the third inning, when Coleman Waheed's RBI two-bagger capped off three straight one-out hits for the Cardinals and tied the game at 2-2. WJC would score three more runs off a wild pitch and two-run single before Henry Ojeda relieved Brothers and induced an infield ground-out to get out of the inning.

The Cougars scratched across a run in the fourth, when Austin Goodenow grounded to short to push across Varner, who led off the frame with hard ground ball single to second base and had advanced to third when Jordan Jeske slammed a single to dead center.   

The Cardinals padded their lead to 6-3 in the fifth with a two-out RBI double off the bat of Vance Gorman. Lopez doubled home Winner, S.D. native Austin Richey in the top of the seventh to create the final margin.

Brothers took the loss on the mound, giving out five runs (three earned) on four hits, walking two and whiffing four. Ojeda worked 3.1 innings of relief and scattered one run on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

Drew Mitrisin (1-0) allowed four runs on seven hits in a complete game victory. The heart of the Cougar lineup accounted for four of USF's seven hits, led by Varner's 2-for-3 outing. Lopez, Durkin and Goodenow each tallied an RBI. 

With no shortage of drama, USF then rallied for a 3-1 win in the series finale that allowed USF to take the four-gamer from William Jewell, three games to one.

USF senior southpaw Noah Coleman and WJC starter Billy Kirkpatrick both faced the minimum through two innings.

William Jewell jumped on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third with Bryan Porting's RBI single and held the lead until the Cougars tied it in the top of the eighth. Dwyer led off with a single before back-to-back ground-outs put pinch runner Wesley Kroupa at third, who would score on a fielding error by William Jewell.

Coleman tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth to set the stage for the Cougars' ninth-inning. Ryan Fobes dashed to first when the Cardinals couldn't field his leadoff popup. Kirkpatrick then mishandled a bunt by Durkin, allowing the speedster Fobes to round the bases and Durkin to scamper all the way to third base. Crow added some insurance as he hit a sacrifice fly to score Durkin to give USF a sudden 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. 

Two runs was more than enough for Coleman, who struck out the lead-off hitter on three pitches before inducing consecutive fly-outs to clinch the comeback for the Cougars.   

Coleman (1-1) bounced back from a rough outing in his season debut and limited the Cardinals to one run on four hits in nine innings. He walked none, struck out five and hit a pair of Cardinal batters.  

USF tallied just six hits and were paced by Fobes, who went 2-for-4. Crow, Varner, Richey and Dwyer accounted for the other hits as the Cougars posted five strikeouts and did not draw a base on balls.

USF is back in action next week, when they travel to California for the annual spring break trip.