The Alabama State baseball team will play its first home game since March 4 when the Hornets host Georgia State Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets (7-16) have played their last 10 contests on the road, including six last week. ASU swept a two-game midweek series at Florida A&M of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tuesday and Wednesday. After a travel day Thursday, ASU won one of four games over the weekend against Big South Conference opponent Gardner-Webb, which came into the series having defeated then #4-ranked North Carolina earlier in the week.
Alabama State posted a 3-3 record last week and, maybe just as importantly, began to generate a consistent offensive attack. The Hornets' team batting average last week was .349, including 19 extra-base hits, hitting two home runs and scoring 51 runs in the six games. In the 17 previous games, Alabama State had a team batting average of just .208 with 33 extra-base hits, three home runs and 67 runs scored.
“The changes that we have made in our hitting approach, we were able to see results which was good to see,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “As always, we must continue to work on those adjustments. The guys did a really good job. It's all on the execution more than the message, and all credit goes to our players. They executed the things we have been working on as of late.”
The Hornets will play just their sixth home game of the season against a Georgia State team (9-12) coming off a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) conference series win over Northeastern this past weekend. Included in that series win was an 11-run, ninth-inning comeback by the Panthers to win 13-12 Friday night. Melendez will also face a formal pupil in Georgia State pitching coach Jason Arnold, who served in the same capacity for Melendez at Bethune-Cookman in 2009-10.
“Georgia State has a good program,” Melendez said. “We've played them in the past. I know their head coach Greg Fraddy, who does a very good job there and who I first crossed paths with when he was at the University of Central Florida. They also have one of my ex-coaches there in Jason, who I'll be reunited with but this time in opposite dugouts. We know they will be very tough. They have a very good system and a very good ball club, as evidenced by the way they've played against good teams around the nation (playing nationally ranked teams Georgia, Georgia Tech and Stetson). It will be a challenge for us, but we welcome that challenge. We just have to play good baseball.”
