ALCORN STATE, Miss. – The Alabama State baseball team rallied with 10 runs in the final three innings to defeat defending SWAC Champion Alcorn State 13-12 in 10 innings Sunday in the final game of a three-game series at Willie “Rat” McGowan Stadium/Bill Foster Field.
The Hornets (20-32 overall, 14-10 SWAC) trailed most of the game before scoring seven runs in the eighth, two in the ninth and the winning run in the 10
th to beat the defending champion Braves on Senior Day.
Alcorn State (17-31, 14-10) threatened to break the game open in the seventh with runners on second and third with one out. However,
Michael Estevez struckout the next two Alcorn State batters looking to retire the before the late-game scoring outburst which helped the Hornets tie for second place in the SWAC's Eastern Division.
“We have to give our kids a lot of credit,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said of his team which posted its 10
th come-from-behind victory this season. “We talk about playing hard throughout the entire game and preached on that a lot. Saturday night, as well as right before the game today, I told them we needed to play harder. The credit goes to those guys. They battled the heat, the elements and the adversity today, and we kept fighting, we kept coming back. It was Alcorn's senior day, the last home game for some of their guys. They are the defending champions, and we were able to come in here and win Sunday after a disappointing day yesterday.”
Alabama State trailed 2-1 after one inning, 4-2 after four innings, and 6-3 after six innings before the contest became one of who could make the plays when it counted. The Hornets scored seven runs in the eighth to take a 10-6 advantage, only to have Alcorn State score three times to cut the Hornets' lead to 10-9 heading into the ninth.
After the Hornets scored a pair of runs to extend to 12-9 lead, Alcorn State scored three in the home half of the ninth inning, all with two outs, to tie the score. After an intentional walk to load the bases, a fielders' choice grounder to third base sent the game into extra innings.
In the 10
th with one out,
Waldyvan Estrada walked and advanced to second after
Manny Rodriguez was hit by a pitch. After Estrada stole third, he scored on
Emmanuel Marrero's sacrifice fly to put Alabama State ahead to stay.
Alcorn State made one last effort in the bottom of the 10
th, as the leadoff batter Jann Butler walked, stole second with one out and stole third with two outs. However, Rodriguez struckout Mundo Sanchez looking to end the game.
“All we have to do, and what we've talked about throughout the season is to give ourselves a chance to win at the end,” Melendez said. “I thought Estevez gave us a lift in keeping the deficit at three runs for us to be able to mount the comeback we did. It was a big moment, but the top of the eighth inning was bigger for us. We took good at-bats, we didn't try to do too much. We got the key base hits when we needed to, and we scored seven runs. That gave us a comfortable lead, but the game went back and forth. We kept battling back.”
Einar Muniz and
Jordan Mims each went two for four at the plate for the Hornets, with Muniz scoring four times and Mims tied a career-high with 4 RBI.
The Hornets return to action Tuesday at Mercer in the first of a two-game series to end the regular season. Game time is 5 p.m.
