HOUSTON – The Alabama State baseball team lost a heartbreaking 8-5 game to Grambling in 12 innings in day two of the Major League Baseball Urban Invitational at Minute Maid Park.
Grambling (1-1) took advantage of three Alabama State errors in the top of the 12
th inning to score six unearned runs on just three hits to take an 8-2 lead.
The Hornets (0-2) rallied with three runs in the bottom of the inning on a three-run homer by
Waldyvan Estrada but could get no closer.
“I thought our pitching staff did an outstanding job and kept us in the ball game,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “We got out of a lot of jams and that's what you want to see. We fought through a lot of adversity today.”
In the fifth inning with runners on first and third with one out, catcher
Richard Gonzalez picked off GSU's Hector Mejias
runner at third, helping ASU to get out of the inning. In the 10
th, pitcher
Greg Matthews threw out Grambling's Thomas Brown at third base on a sacrifice bunt attempt. The Hornets turned a 4-6-3 double play one batter later.
The Hornets nearly got out of the 12
th inning jam, including making a force play at the plate with the bases loaded and none out and Mejias striking out for the second out. However, the defensive miscues opened the door for Grambling.
“This is new for a lot of them, with a lot of freshman and guys that haven't played the game on this level before,” Melendez said. “For them to step up, especially late in the ball game as they did – we had several situations where
Grambling had runners on second and third base with nobody out and didn't score – was huge. The 12
th inning was a horrible inning for us. With two outs, they scored six runs. However, the guys showed a lot of heart today.”
Grambling took a 1-0 lead in the sixth before Alabama State scored in the seventh.
Jordan Mims led off with a single. After a fly out,
Manny Rodriguez' two-run homer to left field put Alabama State ahead 2-1.
GSU tied the game with two outs in the ninth on Chris Wolfe's single to right field scored Joe Gill Jr., who just beat the tag at home plate.
Joel Alvira was stellar in his first career start on the mound for the Hornets, allowing one run on four hits, walking two and striking out eight.
“Amazing performance; he was really good,” Melendez said. “He located his fast ball and pitched off of it today. His fastball was electric today. He was able to locate it and throw it for strikes. He gave us an opportunity to win.”
Rodriguez and Estrada each had two hits for the Hornets, who face Southern in the third game of the Major League Baseball event Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
“We have to take something positive out of this game into Sunday,” Melendez said. “We know how good of a team we can be. We know the things we need to do better. I think when it's all said and done, we'll be a better team because of what happened today. I'm not happy to start 0-2 and none of us are, but we are going to be better off learning the things we can do better from losing this game.”
