The Alabama State baseball team rallied from a 4-0 deficit to defeat Alcorn State 11-7 Sunday in the rubber game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference series at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets (13-18 overall, 7-5 SWAC) are now in sole possession of second place in the conference standings after winning two of three games against the defending champion Braves (7-21, 6-6).
“I'm happy that we won the series,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said Sunday about the way his team responded after splitting the first two games of the series. “Our guys need to understand this is the way we have to play. Regardless of who we play, we need to come in here ready to play and defend our home turf. We've had great fan support; we need to show them good baseball and to win ball games. I'm very satisfied about winning the series against the defending champions and we have to continue to work hard.”
Anthony Ricciardi (2-1) pitched six innings, allowing seven hits and four runs, but none after the third inning. He walked
two and struck out a season-high 10.
“I thought Ricciardi pitched a heckuva game,” Melendez said. “He threw the ball extremely well. To have 10 strikeouts in six innings in Division I baseball is impressive. Alcorn State is the defending conference champion, so you have to give Ricciardi a lot of credit for his outing today. He gave us six solid innings and that's what you want.”
The speed of Alabama State helped lead to five Alcorn errors as the Hornets won for the ninth time in their past 14 games and posted their seventh home win in the past eight contests. After falling behind 4-0 in the top of the third, Alabama State scored in five consecutive innings, scoring single runs in the third and fourth innings, before scoring three in the fifth to take the lead.
The Hornets took advantage of three Braves' errors in the fifth. After reaching on an error,
Richard Amion moved to second base on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a second Alcorn State error.
Richard Gonzalez' infield single scored Amion to cut the margin to 4-3.
Einar Muniz, who had reached base on a walk, scored on a throwing error to tie the score at 4-4.
Waldyvan Estrada's sacrifice fly scored Gonzalez to put Alabama State ahead 5-4.
Alabama State broke the game open with five runs in the sixth.
Leo Rojas walked, stole second, and scored on
Manny Rodriguez' RBI single. After pinch hitter
Ryan Epperson and
Emmanuel Marrero walked to load the bases, Amion's single to center scored Rodriguez and Epperson to give the Hornets a 9-4 lead. Muniz hit an RBI single to center, scoring Marrero, and another sacrifice fly by Estrada scored Amion as the Hornets extended to an 11-4 lead.
“I told the team those mistakes you see on the board were forced errors,” Melendez said, as Alcorn State made four errors in the fifth and sixth innings combined. “We caused havoc on the bases and that's why they made some of those mistakes. We need to play our kind of baseball. If the opponent makes the plays, they make them, but if they don't, then we have to take advantage of them. We certainly opened the flood gates by being aggressive and by stealing bases. We got back-to-back big innings and that was the difference in the ball game.”
Alabama State returns to action at Georgia State Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT.
