The Alabama State baseball team continued its strong play with a doubleheader sweep of North Carolina Central Saturday at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
The Hornets won by scores of 3-2 and 14-1 to improve to 23-8 overall in winning their fifth straight game. Game three of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m.
Game 1 – Hornets 3, North Carolina Central 2: Chase Waters' two-out double to right field in the bottom of the ninth inning scored
Branden Castro with the winning run.
T.J. Renda (3-2) threw a complete-game four-hitter, walking none and striking out six.
Alabama State scored twice in the fourth inning.
Richard Gonzalez led off with a triple to center field, and scored on a single by
Waldyvan Estrada. After Estrada advanced to second on a groundout, Castro's RBI single to right center scored Estrada for a 2-0 Hornet lead.
North Carolina Central (9-16-1) answered with two runs in the fifth and that was all the scoring until the ninth. Renda retired 11 straight batters and 13 of 14 to end the game. The walk-off hit by Waters was on his first at-bat of the game after entering on defense in the eighth inning.
"I thought T.J. threw the ball pretty well," head coach
Mervyl Melendez said of Renda, who threw 70 of his 102 pitches for strikes. "He located a lot of his pitches today. Then, you have a hero who had taken four at-bats prior to today, so you have to feel good about what Waters did. You have to be able to win ball games that are tight like that one was. Every game is not going to be lopsided, so you have to find a way to win close games."
Game 2 – Hornets 14, North Carolina Central 1: A seven-run third inning broke open the nightcap as Alabama State improved to 6-0 this season in the second game of doubleheaders.
Leading 1-0 in the third, the Hornets combined three hits with four NCCU errors into a big inning. Waters reached on a fielding error and advanced to third on the play.
Einar Muniz walked, and
Richard Amion's double to left center field scored Waters.
Cesar Rivera was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Gonzalez followed with being hit by a pitch to score Muniz. Estrada's sacrifice fly to left field scored Amion to give the Hornets a 4-0 lead.
A passed ball advanced Gonzalez and Rivera to second and third, respectively, ahead of Marrero's infield single, which scored Gonzalez, and Rivera scored on an error at the end of the play for a 6-0 lead. With two outs,
Dexter Price singled to left, advancing Marrero to second. On a double steal, Marrero swiped third and scored on a throwing error, Price stole second, advanced to third on the error, and scored on a fielding error to give the Hornets an 8-0 lead.
That would be more than enough for
Joseph Camacho (5-1), who pitched six shutout innings to win his fourth straight decision. He allowed five hits, walked none, and struck out two.
"Joe was very good," Melendez said of Camacho, who has not allowed a run in his last 14 innings. "On a day like today where the wind was blowing everywhere (gusts up to 20+ mph) and you don't really know where the ball is going, you have to keep the ball down with quality pitches and not make many mistakes. He was able to do that."
The Hornets added three runs in the fifth on an RBI double by Muniz and a two-run single by Amion. Marrero's two-run homer to right field in the sixth gave the Hornets a 13-0 lead.
Marrero had three hits and three RBI, and Amion had two hits and three RBI for the Hornets, who scored at least 10 runs for the seventh time this season.
"Both of them were very, very good today," Melendez said. "They hit the ball solidly. The ball Marrero hit out was probably the best contact he's made all year. Amion got on base a lot, scored twice, and you need the leadoff hitter to get on base as often as he can. He leads the nation in runs scored, and that's the guy we need on base when the big boys come to the plate down the lineup."
