The Grambling State duo of Jeremy Shelby and Mychal Roby combined for four hits, four RBIs and two home runs to lead Grambling State to a 7-4 victory in the rubber match versus Southern on Sunday afternoon in Grambling.
Grambling State immediately jumped on Southern starter Cody Elliott to open the game as Shelby belted a three-run shot to left for an early 3-0 advantage. The Tigers upped their lead to 5-0 in the second frame after Justin Kelly and Manny Kumar both recorded RBI singles. Sensing the game slipping away, SU inserted Chris Donaby on the mound to begin the third but GSU continued to score as Brandon Williams sacrificed home Roby for a 6-0 margin.
With the offense clicking, GSU starter Matt Feheeley had no problem with the SU lineup through four innings as the senior retired 12 consecutive batters. However, Feheeley ran into trouble during the fifth and sixth frames as Southern closed to within 6-4.
Grambling State turned to reliever Baron Hinton in the seventh and the junior from Vallejo, Calif. responded in a big way by recording consecutive strikeouts and a groundout to end the top half of the seventh. In the bottom half, Roby created some breathing room for the Tigers with a solo homer over the left field fence for a 7-4 advantage.
Southern refused to go down quietly as three runners combined to reach base in the eighth and ninth innings. However, Hinton and the Tiger defense closed the door on the Jaguars in the ninth as they forced SU’s James Armstrong into a game-ending grounder.
Feheeley improved to 2-2 on the season after striking out four in six innings of work while Shelby had a strong afternoon offensively with three RBIs, two hits and a run scored. Southern’s Victor Franklin and Calvin Anderson each had two hits while Elliott dropped to 0-2 after allowing five runs in two innings of action.
“Overall, we played a good series this weekend and came up with the big play when needed,†said second-year GSU skipper Barret Rey. “We managed to capture every SWAC series in the first half of play and look forward to carrying that momentum over to the second half.â€
