The Alabama State baseball team lost to Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne (IPFW) 11-8 in the series finale Sunday afternoon at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets (15-10) rallied from 5-0 and 6-2 deficits to tie the game after three innings, but were outscored 5-2 the rest of way in losing the series two games to one to IPFW (8-11).
“I thought one play turned the outcome in their favor,” head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. “It comes down to making a play at third base in the first inning (which wasn't made, resulting in an error). Once you do that, they don't score five runs. Maybe you give up one run on a two-out base hit, maybe two runs if they really get it going. However, there's no way we give up that big of an inning. I don't believe we understand the importance of every single play.”
Trailing 5-0 in the first inning, the Hornets got on the board. With one out,
Leo Rojas singled to center,
Waldyvan Estrada singled to left, and
Dexter Price walked to load the bases.
Branden Castro's sacrifice fly scored Rojas, while Estrada advanced to third. On a double steal, Price stole second while Estrada stole home to cut the deficit to 5-2.
After falling behind 6-2, Alabama State scored four times in the third inning to tie the game. Rojas doubled to center, and with one out, Price was hit by a pitch. Castro then singled to left field to score Rojas. After a fielder's choice grounder for the second out which advanced Price to third, the Hornets executed another double steal, as Cooper stole second and Price stole home to trim the deficit to 6-4.
Emmanuel Marrero then doubled to left center, scoring Cooper, and
Raul Perez singled to left center to score Marrero to tie the game at 6-6.
However, IPFW came right back with four runs in the fourth inning and one in the sixth. Alabama State scored single runs in the fourth and sixth innings but did not cut the margin below three runs the rest of the game.
Einar Muniz went three-for-three with a run scored and Rojas two-for three with two runs scored for the Hornets, who will play mid-week road games at Kennesaw State Tuesday at 5 p.m. (CT) and Wednesday at Georgia State at 4 p.m. (CT), with both games broadcast live at bamastatesports.com/showcase.
“This game is all about making adjustments and winning,” Melendez said. “We tie the ball game, we're supposed to hold them there, and we didn't. Yeah, we tied the game, but we're not here for moral victories. We're not here to say we're playing better and we've turned the corner. We're 15-10, and we've done things wrong in the 10 games we've lost. Until we understand what we need to do, many games could turn out this way. We need to play better. We need to understand how to do the little things. We're worrying too much about the outcome of the game before we actually get to the ninth inning. We can't worry about the outcome."
