FLORENCE, Ala. (February 22, 2026) – The University of North Alabama baseball team closed its eighth straight home game with an 8-6 win and series sweep of Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon. 

The chilly, windy final game of series saw a seven-run fourth inning that boosted the Lions to an 8-3 lead. This became the first sweep of the season; UNA had one series sweep in 2025, which came against Central Arkansas in Conway in the final series of the season.

The seven-run inning is the most runs in a single inning so far this year — the next most being five which the Lions have accomplished three times this season against SIUE on Feb. 13, Murray State on Feb. 18 and Saint Louis on Feb. 21.

North Alabama (6-2) hit .600 with runners in scoring position for the Sunday afternoon slate and earned four of their seven hits against left-handed pitchers.

Five Lions were used on the mound with John Allen Stogner earning his second Sunday start of the season. The graduate went 3.1 innings with six strikeouts which matches his career high at UNA which came last season in his start against UT Martin. 

Jordan Touhey received the win, his second of the season, as he took over in the fourth inning for Stogner. Justus Agosto, Carlos Carmona and Landon Scruggs closed the game with Scruggs receiving the save — the first for any Lion this season.

Saint Louis (0-7) used eight hits to earn their six runs as the Billikens tried to mount the comeback, but the 12 runners left on-base and 10 strikeouts proved to be detrimental.

This was the second game this season that North Alabama scored in the opening frame. The other came against SIUE on Feb. 13 where UNA won similarly to today by two runs, 3-1. 

The Lions earned their third multi-home run game as the team earned two today — there were nine such games during the 2025 season. 

Senior left fielder, Nash Rippen torched his third bomb of the year; he led the team with eight in 2025.

Dylan Coleman continued his rampage of the weekend as he hit .500 with three RBIs and a home run; Petey Craska was the other Lion to go .500 and scored a run, as well.

A drop from 67 degrees to 41 degrees occurred on Sunday with a wind chill of -10.

The Lions took the field in their black jerseys and pinstripe pants with a few players wearing a hoodie underneath — even some with a full morph suit to try to battle the cold.

The defense and offense came out storming as Stogner handled a 1-2-3 inning — tagging a strikeout in the second at-bat before Rippen hit a monster 436-foot bomb in the bottom of the inning. 

However, the Billikens had fight and poured on their best offensive performance of the season with five runs over the next three innings of play. 

Stogner earned two strikeouts in the top of the third before a single, triple and ground-rule double score two runs — the senior pitcher closed the inning with another strikeout.

The Billikens added another run in the top of the fourth to extend their lead, 3-1.

However, North Alabama flexed their bats in the bottom of the inning with their seven-run explosion as SLU switched pitchers.

Tyler LePage led off and was hit in the at-bat before Will Millard doubled to left field for two in scoring position; a ground out pushed LePage across for the score. 

A walk and a single loaded the bases before the top of the lineup stepped in. 

Second baseman Justin Santoyo saw a ball come across before taking a chop at the second pitch. The ball hit in the green of the turf as it took a bounce over a jumping Billiken first baseman before landing safely in the outfield.

Millard and Ryker Billingsley went screeching around third before plating two more runs as Leighton Jenkins halted at third. 

Rippen hit a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Jenkins in the next appearance and make it a 5-3 Lions lead. 

Craska walked as SLU elected for the second new arm of the inning. Coleman put the next one in the UNA bullpen as pitchers leap frogged one another to celebrate the 8-3 lead. 

SLU added two more runs in the fifth before another in the seventh to make it 8-6 but Carmona and Scruggs put four strikeouts on the board to stave off the comeback. 
 

Pitchers of Record
W – Jordan Touhey (2-1)
L –  Liam McKinney (0-2)
S – Landon Scruggs (1)
 

COMING UP NEXT
North Alabama gets their first road game of the year on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m. against Samford at Joe Lee Griffin Field in Birmingham, Ala. 
 

For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.