The Alabama State baseball team swept a Southwestern Athletic Conference doubleheader from Mississippi Valley State Saturday, winning 4-2 and 5-4 at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
Joel Alvira pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings with a season-high nine strikeouts, and
Jordan Mims went 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI in the opener.
Waldyvan Estrada's walkoff single in the ninth inning of game two capped a come-from-behind win for Alabama State (18-28 overall, 12-8 SWAC), which ended a nine-game losing streak.
“You want to create that mindset that you want to play every game to win and you have to play hard,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “I believe if you do that and play the game the right way, you're going to win a lot of ball games. It's very rewarding knowing we played with our backs against the wall, we didn't play very good defense (four errors in the nightcap), and we still found a way to win. We have to clean it up on the defensive side and we have to concentrate on tomorrow's ball game.”
The Hornets and Mississippi Valley State (14-31, 10-13) play the final game of the series Sunday at 1 p.m.
Game 1 - Hornets 4, Miss. Valley St 2: Alabama State scored in the second inning, as Mims scored on a two-out error to take a 1-0 lead. The Hornets extended to a 2-0 lead in the fourth on Mims' one-out RBI double to left center field, scoring Estrada who had walked.
Alabama State scored twice in the fifth.
Darrion Pedro lead off with a single, and scored on
Einar Muniz' double down the left field line. After Muniz' stole third and a groundout,
Richard Amion's squeeze bunt scored Muniz for a 4-0 margin.
Alvira (4-4) allowed five hits and walked one in getting the victory on the mound. Valley scored its runs in the ninth inning, but
Manny Rodriguez closed the door in relief to preserve the win.
Game 2 – Hornets 5, Miss. Valley St. 4: Alabama State won for the ninth time this season when trailing in a game.
With one out in the ninth, Amion singled to right center, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. After Valley intentionally walked
Emmanuel Marrero and
Richard Gonzalez to load the bases, Estrada singled on a 2-1 pitch to right field to score Amion.
“It's been tough, since we had been in a bit of a funk in the last few weeks and hadn't closed out any games,” Melendez said. “We won the first game, but the last inning (when MVSU scored twice) wasn't a good inning for us. We kind of got complacent and sat back a little too much and we have to apply pressure. In baseball, you have to play with a lot of intensity, and I thought our guys did that in the second game, as well as show a lot of heart at the end.”
After the teams traded runs in the first inning, the Delta Devils scored a single run in the third and two runs in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead.
The Hornets tied the game in the home sixth. Gonzalez walked and Estrada singled to lead off the inning. After Mims advanced the runners on a sacrifice bunt, Pedro's sacrifice fly scored Gonzalez to cut the deficit in half.
Leo Rojas followed with a double to left to score Estrada, and Muniz' single to left scored Rojas to the game at 4-4.
The Alabama State bullpen pitched out of several huge jams in the late innings to preserve the tie.
Armando Ruiz came out of the bullpen with two on and one out, and, after walking his first batter, loaded the bases. Ruiz then struckout Joseph Germaine swinging and forced Allen Cheek to ground out to first to end the threat.
Michael Estevez came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning with two on and none out. After getting an out at third on a fielder's choice grounder, Estevez then issued a walk to load the bases, but recovered to strikeout Cheek and got Billy Linney to ground out to second base to end the inning.
“Today is a very good time to give our pitchers a lot of props. They battled,” Melendez said of his pitchers, which forced Valley to strand seven of its 13 runners on base in the final three innings. “The relief pitching did an amazing job. We put guys in crucial situations. We put Ruiz in a tough situation and he got out of the inning. We also put Estevez in a very tough situation and he got out of it as well. I said two months ago that I wanted this team to be known for coming back, that no deficit is too big. Today, a comeback victory is what the doctor ordered. I'm very happy with that performance.”
