BATON ROUGE, La. – Texas Southern rallied for 3 runs in the 8th inning to tie the game and 3 more in the 9th to defeat Alabama State 6-3 in an elimination game at the 2012 SWAC Baseball Tournament.
Alabama State had staked itself to a 3-0 lead on a pair of RBIs by Richard Gonzalez as the Hornets rallied for all 3 of their runs in the 5th inning. Starter T.J. Renda was seemingly on cruise control until the 8th.
Anthony Dilligard woke up the Tigers with the tournament’s first home run to cut the lead to 3-1, and a couple batters later, the second blast of the tournament tied it. Lacy Jackson was responsible for that homer.
Texas Southern scratched out 3 more runs in the bottom of the 8th, and ASU went quietly in the 9th.
TSU advances to Friday’s elimination game at 12:00 p.m. vs. the loser of Thursday night’s Prairie View / Jackson State game. Alabama State is eliminated from the tournament.
Southern knocks out Grambling
Southern ace Jose DeLeon threw a 6-hit shutout and the Jaguars advanced in the first elimination game of the 2012 SWAC Baseball Tournament on Thursday. The Jags defeated their rival, Grambling, 8-0.
Grambling proved its own worst enemy committing seven errors and giving up six unearned runs. Matt Mitchell took the loss for the Tigers, but only one of the seven runs he submitted in 7.0 innings was an earned run by the Jaguars.
Jeremy Lopez led the Southern offense with a pair of RBI after going 1 for 3 at the plate. DJ Wallace was 2 for 5 with an RBI and a run scored.
SWAC Hitter of the Year, Thomas Brown III, was the only Grambling player to collect more than one hit going 2 for 4.
Southern advances to play the loser of Thursday’s afternoon’s winner’s bracket game between Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn State. That game is scheduled for Friday at 9:00 a.m.
Drains solid start not enough versus Panthers
The Jackson State Tigers baseball team fell 2-0 to the Prairie View A&M Panthers on the second day of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament at Lee Hines Field in Baton Rouge, LA. With the loss JSU falls to a 34-16 record.
Quintavious Drains (11-5) pitched eight solid innings, allowing the two runs on only four hits, to suffer the loss. JSU’s offense could not get going. The Tigers also recorded four hits, with Aneko Knowles, Desmond Russell, Kendall Logan and Glenn Walker each finished with a hit.
The Panthers scored their first run in the fourth inning and the second run in the sixth.
Jackson State will look to stave off elimination Friday when the Tigers take on Texas Southern at noon.
The Delta Devils win a thriller over Alcorn State
Demetrins Bonner’s pinch-hit single in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted Mississippi Valley State to a 7-6 victory over Alcorn State in the SWAC baseball tournament at Lee-Hines Field on Thursday.
Allen Clark started the Delta Devils’ rally with a one-out single, his third hit of the day. Billy Linney, who had four hits, was walked by Ryan Fuentes, whose relief stint ended after 4.1 innings. Bonner greeted reliever Harrison Gary with a game-winning hit to right field.
