Baton Rouge, La. – Jackson State built a lead early to cruise to a 7-4 victory to over Grambling State at the 2008 Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament at Lee-Hines Field on Friday afternoon. With their second loss, Grambling State was been eliminated from the tournament. LaDerek Camper, Jerome Tyes and Cortez Cole each had two hits for the JSU Tigers (36-21). But GSU (21-28) committed six errors – four in the decisive first three innings to propel JSU to the win. A RBI double in the first inning by Tyes gave JSU its first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning. After Jamaal Thelwell scored on an error, Camper knocked in Chad Hall with a RBI single. With two outs, Enrique Quintero knocked in Charles Brown with a single before Camper closed out the scoring when he crossed the plate on a passed ball. Three of the four runs scored in the second inning were due to Grambling State errors. Jackson State went ahead 5-0 continued to pour it on in the third as Cole singled. He then stole second, went to third on an error and scored on another GSU error. Brown scored his second run on Tyes’ second RBI single to give JSU a 7-0 advantage. Grambling State got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning after Adrian Turner hammered a triple and later scored on a single by Brandon Williams. The G-Men would pulled the scored to 7-4 when Williams hit a RBI single to score Joseph Sam. But that is as close as GSU would get as Jackson State held on the win. Marquise Zachary gave up eight hits for Jackson State , but Marlon Sommerville and Quintero allowed just one run over the final 2 2/3 innings to preserve the win.
The Tigers advance to the third round of the SWAC Tournament Saturday to face Mississippi Valley State.  First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. at Lee-Hines Field on Southern University’s campus.
