The Alabama State baseball team completed a three-game sweep of archrival Alabama A&M with a 7-3 victory Sunday afternoon at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
Emmanuel Marrero and
Richard Amion each had two hits apiece to pace the 10-hit attack for the Hornets (4-9 overall, 3-0 SWAC), who recorded their first conference sweep since 2010. Alabama A&M fell to 5-8, 0-3.
Einar Muniz and
Leo Rojas each scored two runs for Alabama State, which outscored the Bulldogs 30-7 in the series.
“It's very exciting,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “You want to start on top and you want to start by playing well at the very beginning and establishing a tone. This is only the beginning for our team. It's only the beginning of the season.”
With the game tied a 1-1, a three-run third inning and two-run fourth inning broke the game open for Alabama State. Aided by two Bulldog errors,
Leo Rojas and
Waldyvan Estrada scored runs and an RBI single by Marrero gave the Hornets a 4-1 lead.
Richard Gonzalez' two-run triple in the fourth scored Muniz and Rojas to extend the margin to 6-1.
“The wind was blowing in the entire weekend and I thought we made adjustments,” Melendez said of his offense which had back-to-back 10+ hit games for the first time this season. “We went the other way and that was the key to our success, not only that but being patient at the plate and trying not to do too much.”
Ron Frost pitched five solid innings, allowing four runs on two hits, walked four, but struckout six. He allowed single runs in the first and fifth innings, but stymied the damage in his final inning in stranding the bases loaded.
“He battled today, he battled,” Melendez said of Frost. “He was not throwing his changeup for a strike. It was a kind of tough calling pitches for him but all I can say about Ron is he battled. He gave us five innings and that was key. We don't want to go to the bullpen too early.”
The Hornets return to action Wednesday at 6 p.m. with a non-conference game in Birmingham at UAB.
