JACKSON, Miss. – The Alabama State baseball team staked its claim as the Southwestern Athletic Conference's best by beating defending champ Jackson State 9-7 on Sunday, completing the three-game weekend sweep.
The Hornets (21-8 overall, 12-1 SWAC) won all three games on the road in a matchup of teams tied for first in the SWAC's Eastern Division coming into the weekend. Alabama State now has a three-game division lead over Jackson State (17-9, 5-4) at the halfway point of the Hornets' conference schedule.
"Setting the tone for us early in conference play, winning as many games as we could and building the lead is what we wanted to do," head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. "We want to continue to be in first place, and continue to play good baseball. Coming in here and playing Jackson State tough, and coming out with three victories is what we wanted to do. I'm really happy with the performance of our players. I thought we played extremely hard. We have to clean it up on the defensive side, but we have a week to work on that."
Alabama State came out swinging with a four-run first inning.
Richard Amion led off with a double to right field. After a ground out,
Richard Gonzalez singled up the middle to score Amion.
Waldyvan Estrada singled down the left field line, advancing Gonzalez to second.
Emmanuel Marrero doubled down the right field line, scoring Gonzalez.
Branden Castro then doubled down the right line, scoring Estrada and Marrero for a 4-0 lead to set the tone for the day.
"I thought the first inning was a big key for us to get off to a good start," Melendez said. "We knew Jackson State would have a lot of fight today, with us winning two games Saturday. Setting the tone in the first inning really was important for us."
Cesar Rivera's solo home run in the second, his third of the season, gave the Hornets a 5-0 lead.
After Jackson State scored two runs in the third, the Hornets responded with two in the fourth. With one out,
Einar Muniz walked and Amion was hit by pitch. Both runners advanced on a fly out. Muniz then scored on a wild pitch, and Gonzalez singled to left, scoring Amion for a 7-2 lead.
The Tigers chipped away with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth, before Alabama State scored late inning runs. Gonzalez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth, scoring
Dexter Price for an 8-5 lead.
In the ninth, Marrero reached on an infield single. After a pair of sacrifice bunts,
Marcus Swint drilled the first pitch to left field for a base hit, scoring Marrero to give the Hornets a 9-5 lead.
Jackson State responded with two runs in the ninth, but
Patrick Coffin came out of the bullpen to get the final out and the save.
"We knew the last inning was going to be tough," Melendez said. "We were able to get out of it by allowing just two runs. The big hit by Swint in the top of the ninth really cannot be overlooked. It allowed us to extend the lead to force them to have to get four guys on base to tie to score. It was a huge hit for us by Swint."
The Hornets return to action at home Friday, beginning a three-game weekend series against North Carolina Central. The teams will play Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
