The Alabama State baseball team remained undefeated in Southwestern Athletic Conference play after taking two games from Alcorn State, 7-5 and 7-4 Saturday at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
 
"We told our team Alcorn was going to fight; they're a tough team," head coach Mervyl Melendez said. "They play with confidence and they play hard, but I'm so proud of our team. We're finding ways to stay competitive and win ball games. That says a lot about a team like ours. We take pride in making the necessary adjustments late in the game to come out on top, and that was the case today."

Game three of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m.

Game 1 – Hornets 7, Alcorn St. 5: After a slugfest early on in which the teams combined for six extra-base hits, including three home runs in the first three innings, pitching took over.

Patrick Coffin (2-0) pitched the final five innings to earn the win for the Hornets, allowing four hits and one run, walking one and striking out six.

"He was responsible for us getting the victory in game one," Melendez said of Coffin. "I thought Alcorn State came in and swung the bats extremely well in the first few innings, and Coffin came in and didn't allow anything until the ninth inning. He's a tough competitor."

Tied at 4-4 in the third, Waldyvan Estrada doubled down the left field line to lead off the inning and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Dexter Price to give Alabama State the lead for good.

Leading off the Hornets' seventh, Cesar Rivera walked and Richard Gonzalez was hit by pitch. After both players advanced on wild pitch, Estrada laced a singled up the middle on a 3-2 pitch, scoring Rivera and Gonzalez for a 7-4 Alabama State lead.

Estrada and Emmanuel Marrero each went 2-for-3, with Estrada driving in three runs. Dillon Cooper hit his second home run of the season, a solo shot, in the second inning.

Game 2 – Hornets 7, Alcorn St. 4: The Hornets took advantage of Alcorn's mistakes in a four-run eighth inning to take the nightcap.

After Alcorn State took the lead 4-3 in the eighth, Rivera lead off the home half of the inning by being hit by a pitch, Gonzalez reached on a dropped fly ball, and Estrada walked to load the bases. Marrero then walked to force home Rivera, and  Branden Castro dropped in a single on a misplayed fly ball to score Gonzalez to give the Alabama State the lead again at 5-4. After two outs, Muniz and Amion drew RBI walks for the final margin.

"You find ways to win," Melendez said. "The guys are not going to be great everyday, but you find ways to have good at-bats, to be competitive, and not give anything to the opponent. That's what we did in that inning. We had better at-bats, most with two strikes, and we continued to fight. We were able to score runs because we had good at-bats."

Joseph Camacho struck out a career-high 10 batters over 7 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs, two of them unearned. Hunter McIntosh got the win in relief, allowing one hit and no runs with two strikeouts over the final 1 1/3 innings.

"Camacho threw the ball extremely well," Melendez said. "He kept the ball down, but had some errors behind him that should not have lost him the ball game. Once again, the bullpen did a magnificent job with Hunter coming in to getting a key out, and then closing the game out in the ninth."

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