The Alabama State baseball team will begin a stretch of six straight non-conference games Tuesday at Auburn at 6 p.m.
The Hornets (14-7) and Tigers (13-6) will meet at Plainsman Park for the first of two meetings this season, as only South Alabama has more wins (17) among in-state teams than Alabama State and Auburn, which will play again at Auburn on April 10. The Alabama State internet radio broadcast begins at 5:45 p.m., while Auburn will provide a live video stream of the game for $9.95. Bamastatesports.com will have links for audio and video of Tuesday's game.
Alabama State is coming off a Southwestern Athletic Conference series win over Jackson State. The Hornets won 9-8 in 11 innings in game one, lost 12-1 in seven innings in game two (both on Saturday), and won the series with a 14-4 seven-inning win Sunday.
“You have to be happy with the outcome, winning two out of three at home against a good opponent,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “We didn't play very well on Saturday, but we came out with one victory. Yesterday we played really well. We played much better. We pitched a lot better than we did on Saturday, and our offense came alive. We scored 14 runs. I was happy and pleased with the effort from the guys.”
The Hornets have flexed their muscle this season – literally. After hitting 14 home runs in 56 games last season, Alabama State has hit 13 in 21 games in 2013. The Hornets hit a pair of homers Sunday, as
Richard Gonzalez hit his first career home run, a grand slam, in the sixth inning, while
Waldyvan Estrada hit a three-run shot in the third inning.
“I'm very happy with it, and that's one thing we needed to improve on,” Melendez said. “We talked about getting stronger. We talked about that being a part of our game, and I think the coaches did a good job working with the hitters. Our strength and conditioning coach (Karl) Jordan has done an amazing job with the position players, getting them stronger. We told him that's the type of team we wanted to be, and he's really done a magnificent job with our guys, with our position players getting them stronger to be able to put a little bit more power into their swing.”
Auburn is coming off losing a weekend series against second-ranked Vanderbilt. Melendez knows the challenge the Tigers will present to his Hornets.
“Being an SEC team and being one of the better teams in the nation, they will be a challenge for anybody that plays them,” Melendez said. “They are coming off a weekend in which they lost three games against Vanderbilt, two of the three were close games, and the one that was (an) 8-1 (final) was a 2-0 ball game in the seventh inning. They have good pitching, and they have good offense as well. Our guys will be ready. We'll be ready for the challenge. We've got to record 27 outs and we have to play well that day in order to come out on top.”
