The Alabama State baseball team will host Jackson State in a matchup of the top teams in the SWAC's Eastern Division this weekend at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets (12-6 overall, 4-2 SWAC) and Tigers (9-8, 6-0) will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. and a single game Sunday also at 1 p.m. There will be live stats for all three games on bamastatesports.com, and Saturday's doubleheader will be video streamed free of charge at bamastatesports.com/showcase. Also, kids run the bases following every Sunday home game this season.
Alabama State lost all six emotionally-charged games last season to the defending division champion Tigers, three of them by one run, and one in extra innings. And while it's an important series, Head Coach
Mervyl Melendez knows it's three of 24 on the SWAC schedule and three of 54 during the regular season.
“We know the importance of the series, as well as the importance of every weekend series we have,” Melendez said. “We have to start with this one; this is the one we have in front of us. We just have to be intense. We have to play the game the right way. We have to do what we do best. We have to concentrate on the things we have done well throughout the season, and improve on the things we haven't really mastered so far. We have to take it one game at a time. We can't just concentrate on the outcome of the game. We have to play the game, and let the outcome of the game decide itself by how we play the game.”
In the SWAC Preseason Poll, the teams were predicted to finish in a first-place tie in the division, and those prognostications have followed suit statistically. The Hornets and Tigers rank 1-2 in the conference in six offensive categories - batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored, home runs and stolen bases. Similar to the football adage of offensive wins games and defense wins championships, pitching and defense will be critical to success this weekend.
“You don't want to give the opponent more chances than they earn,” Melendez said. “Whenever they get base hits, those are the chances they have earned. You don't want to make mistakes, you don't want to walk many batters, and you don't want to make many errors. Errors and runners on base could end up scoring without it being earned. You want them to earn everything they get.”
