PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Prairie View A&M Panthers swept a doubleheader over visiting Wiley College on Tuesday afternoon at the baseball complex.
Three pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts coupled with a three-run homer from James Rodriguez as Prairie View A&M recorded a 5-3 win in the opener.
Both teams traded runs in the second before Rodriguez blasted a three-run shot over the left field wall for an early 4-1 lead after three innings of action. Wiley chipped away at the lead over the next four innings with a pair of runs which put PV on its heels as the lead shrunk to 4-3. The Panthers picked up a much-needed insurance run in the eighth as sophomore shortstop Andre Oliver drove in Brandon Williams for the team’s final run of the game.
Oliver, Giovanni Angel and Kyle Bible led the way offensively with two hits each. Rodriguez accounted for three of PV’s five RBIs while Julio Baltodano and Cody Murray picked up the win and save, respectively.
In game two, the Panthers recorded a shutout en route to a 2-0 victory.
Prairie View A&M only needed one inning to put the game away as Colby Hines recorded a sacrifice RBI in the third followed by Oliver’s RBI single to left. Holding a 2-0 lead, the pitching quarter of Kellen Simmons, Chuck Ater, Travis Tipps and Anthony Neves did the rest as they combined to shutout Wiley on four strikeouts.
Simmons improved to 2-3 on the season while Neves notched his second save. Six Panthers recorded a hit with Hines and Oliver logging an RBI each.
Prairie View returns to action on Tuesday, April 5 with a doubleheader versus Huston-Tillotson beginning at 1 p.m. in Prairie View.