The Alabama State baseball team completed a four-game sweep of its SWAC-opening series against Mississippi Valley State, winning 4-0 and 9-7 Sunday at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets (12-3 overall, 4-0 SWAC) rode the starting pitching of
T.J. Renda (complete-game shutout) and
Normando Valentin (5 1/3 innings in first career start) to again the set the tone for Alabama State, which has now won eight consecutive games heading into Tuesday's 6 p.m. home game against the 10-2 UAB Blazers.
"I thought our pitching was excellent today until late in game two," head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. "We did a heck of a job on the mound and defensively. I'm very proud of our pitchers.
T.J. Renda was back in form, pitched a gem, and pitched like he did all of last year. Valentin did a great job in his first career start, and pitched pretty well."
Game 1 – Hornets 4, Miss. Valley St. 0: Renda (1-2) scattered 10 hits, walked none, and struckout 11 in throwing 83 of his 109 pitches for strikes. He struck out multiple hitters in the second and fourth innings, and forced Valley to leave 10 runners on base.
Alabama State did all its scoring in the first four innings.
Richard Amion led off with a double down the right field line, stole third, and scored on
Marcus Swint's single to left field. With one out,
Richard Gonzalez doubled to right center, and scored on a two-out
single by
Emmanuel Marrero for a 2-0 Hornet lead.
In the second,
Dillon Cooper hit his first home run of the year to left field to extend the Alabama State lead to 3-0.
In the third, Gonzalez drew a two-out walk and scored on
Waldyvan Estrada's double down the left field line for the final margin.
Amion, Swint, and
Einar Muniz each went 2-for-4 in the opener.
Game 2 – Hornets 9, Miss. Valley St. 7: Playing as the visiting team in the nightcap, Alabama State got solo home runs from Amion and
Branden Castro in scoring at least one run in each of the first six innings.
Amion, who went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, led off the first with a double to center, and scored on Gonzalez' RBI single to left for a 1-0 lead.
In the second,
Dexter Price doubled to left field, Cooper was hit by a pitch, and
Raul Perez walked to load the bases. Muniz was hit by pitch, scoring Price. Cooper then scored on a dropped infield fly out to extend the Hornets' lead to 3-0.
In the third, Swint's one-out double to left field scored
Branden Castro, who walked to give the Hornets a 4-1 lead.
Amion and Castro hit solo homers in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, to give Alabama State a 6-1 lead.
After Valley added a run in the fifth, the Hornets scored three in the sixth. Muniz led off with a single through the left side. Amion then doubled to center, advancing Muniz to third. Gonzalez doubled to left field, scoring Muniz and Amion. Marrero followed tripled to right center, scoring Gonzalez for a 9-2 Alabama State lead.
Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with one run scored and three RBI, Price went 2-for-2 with a run scored, and Muniz went 2-for 3 with one run scored and one RBI to pace the 12-hit attack.
Valley scored one in the sixth, and four in the eighth before
Hunter McIntosh pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to get the save.
"It is important to get off to a good start in conference play," Melendez said. "We have a good start; now we can't look back. We have to look forward and continue to play good baseball. However, you have to give a lot of credit to Mississippi Valley. They kept fighting and it was a good test for our guys. I'm glad to see our guys fight through it. When adversity hits, what are going to do? Today, our guys persevered to get the win."
