The Alabama State baseball team plays its first Southwestern Athletic Conference road series of 2014 this weekend against a much-improved Alabama A&M team.

The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 11 a.m., with Sunday's single game at 1 p.m.

The Hornets (15-5 overall, 7-0 SWAC) are coming off a pair of midweek games versus in-state opponents, with Tuesday's game at Troy halted due to rain after seven innings with Alabama State trailing 8-5, and a close 6-5 loss at Auburn Wednesday night. Head coach Mervyl Melendez was pleased with how his team performed this week.

"I was very happy with our offensive execution during our mid-week games this week," Melendez said. "We had a couple of bad innings that hurt us and prevented us from winning on Wednesday. Other than that, we played good baseball."

The Hornets lead the SWAC in virtually every key statistical category, including batting average, slugging percentage runs scored, hits and home runs. Alabama A&M (6-12, 3-3) ranks second or third to the Hornets in those same categories. The Bulldogs won two out of three at home against Alcorn State, while losing two of three, including one in extra innings, at Jackson State last weekend.

"We understand the significance of playing our in-state rivals," Melendez said. "It is also imperative to understand how important it is to play well against a team that has improved vastly this year. Our team has worked hard on a few things this week that we needed improvements on, and we are ready for this weekend."

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