BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - The Alabama State baseball team fell to Gardner-Webb 13-6 Friday night in the first of a four-game weekend series.
Poor defense reared its ugly head again for the Hornets (6-14), who committed a season-high five errors leading to six unearned runs. Gardner-Webb (11-7) scored at least two runs in five of the first six innings.
“The very first thing I told the guys before we started the game is we have to take care of the baseball, we can't make mistakes,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “That was the very first thing we do in the first inning. We make errors and allow them to get three runs in the first inning. That set the tone for them to have a good game. With that said, you have to give them credit. They hit the baseball very hard and took every mistake our pitchers made and made them pay.”
Alabama State scored runs in each of the final four innings. In the sixth,
Richard Amion singled, stole second, and scored on
Derrick Sanders' single. In the seventh,
Einar Muniz' two-out RBI single scored
Emmanuel Marrero, who doubled. Marrero's walk with the bases loaded in the eighth scored
Richard Gonzalez.
The Hornets scored a pair of runs in the ninth.
Jahmal Brooks and
Tyler Ray got on base to lead off the inning, both being hit by pitches. Gonzalez' RBI single scored Brooks, and Rojas' sacrifice fly scored Ray.
“I want our team to be known by the way we fight back,” Melendez said. “I want to think that no lead is big enough with our team and that's the concept we're trying to instill in our players right now. The way that we fought back and battled and never gave up the last four innings is what we want to do.”
The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon.
