HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Alabama State baseball team completed a three-game sweep of archrival Alabama A&M by winning Saturday's doubleheader 7-0 and 12-2 in seven innings at Bulldog Field.
Pitching set the tone in both victories for the Hornets (16-19 overall, 10-5 SWAC). T.J. Renda pitched a complete-game, five-hit shutout as Alabama State won game one, 7-0. In the nightcap,
Anthony Ricciardi allowed just two runs on seven hits, walked one and struckout seven as ASU won 12-2.
“When you give up only two runs in a doubleheader, your pitchers have done a great job,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “That was the case with Renda and Ricciardi, and we only used two pitchers today. We've been playing a lot of mid-week games and three games on the weekend, so anytime you can save the bullpen, it's a plus. Those guys did a great job today.”
Alabama State completed the six-game season sweep of Alabama A&M and strengthened the Hornets' second-place position in the SWAC's Eastern Division with leader Jackson State coming to Montgomery for a huge series next weekend.
“Whenever you play your rival, and you play them at their place, it's always a little bit tougher,” Melendez said of Alabama A&M. “Yesterday, we had a tough game, going to extra innings. Today, our intensity was greater than theirs. When you go to somebody else's field, you have to outhustle them and out energize them. Scoring early and often is always the key to put pressure on the opponent, especially at their place.”
GAME 1 – Hornets 7, Alabama A&M 0: Waldyvan Estrada's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave ASU a 2-0 lead. The Hornets added three in the fifth, taking advantage of a pair of Bulldog errors to extend to a 5-0 lead.
The runs would be more than enough for Renda, who threw his second shutout of the season. Renda walked none, struckout six, and retired eight of nine AAMU leadoff hitters in the contest. He threw 113 pitches, 76 for strikes and faced just five batters over the minimum.
Richard Amion,
Darrion Pedro, and
Manny Rodriguez each had two hits in the victory.
GAME 2 – Hornets 12, Alabama A&M 2 (7 innings): Gonzalez and Pedro each had four hits, and Gonzalez and
Leo Rojas each had three RBI as the Hornets registered a season-high 21 hits.
Alabama State scored at least one run in each of the first six innings, sparked by a four-run first inning and three-run second inning. The Hornets swept the back end of a doubleheader for the first time since the twinbill sweep of Alabama A&M on March 3. ASU had lost the second game of doubleheaders in four consecutive series, three times after winning game one.
“That's something the coaches have been talking about with the players, is putting pressure on our opponents early,” Melendez said. "We did that today; you force the opponents to play catchup, which is not easy. Putting up four runs in the first inning, three of them with two outs, was big for us in game two.”
Gonzalez' one-out RBI single scored Amion in the first inning to begin the scoring barrage. With two outs, Pedro singled to left to score Gonzalez. Rojas then doubled to left, scoring Pedro, and Rodriguez doubled to left to score Rojas and give ASU a 4-0 lead.
In the second, Gonzalez hit a two-run double and Pedro an RBI single as the Hornets took control with a 7-0 lead.
“We wanted to be aggressive at the plate,” Melendez said. “I thought Friday we were too passive. We were taking a lot of pitches early, a lot of that by design. Today, we were aggressive, we took pitches, we hit mistakes, and a lot of them fell for base hits. When you hit the ball hard, sooner or later they are going to start falling in. The approach at the plate today was very good by our team.”
Alabama State will play at Kennesaw State Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT before hosting Jackson State in a three-game series Saturday and Sunday at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
