The Alabama State baseball team will play its final Southwestern Athletic Conference road series this weekend at Alcorn State.
Saturday's doubleheader begins at noon, and Sunday's single game starts at 1 p.m. Bamastatesports.com will have a live link to the Alcorn State radio broadcast Saturday, with the Alabama State radio broadcast and live stats provided Sunday.
For the second consecutive week, the Hornets (26-12 overall, 14-1 SWAC) are coming off a pair of mid-week losses. The Hornets have generated offense, but not the pitching and defense at times in losing 12-8 at Mercer and a late-game 9-5 loss to Samford.
"In the last two weeks of midweek games, we've struggled out of the bullpen a little bit," head coach
Mervyl Melendez said. "That's something we have to continue to address. That's an area that in baseball unfortunately will falter at times. Often in college baseball, the closers and set-up guys normally change because they can get into a funk. That's something we have thought about, and will continue to work very hard to get an answer to that issue."
Despite those mid-week defeats, Melendez will not let the losses dictate the mood and confidence of his team, which has played well this season in winning 26 of 38 games, including seven conference wins in a row.
"One of the things as a head coach I have to be very careful of is not letting the bad games dictate what this team is about," Melendez said. "In baseball, regardless of the level, you are going to have games in which you don't play well. Overall, we have played really well this year, and we have to concentrate on the things we have done well. As we do every week, we've addressed the issues we need to at practice, and we've worked on our weaknesses to make them better. The bottom line is we still have a long season to go. I'm really happy with where we are at this point. We could have won two of the four midweek games that we lost. We had a chance to win, and that's all you can ask."
In last month's meeting against Alcorn State, the Hornets swept the series in Montgomery, winning a pair of close games Saturday (7-5, 7-4) before winning in eight innings on Sunday (12-2). The Alabama State – Alcorn State series has been an intense, hard-fought matchup, and Melendez expects more of the same in Lorman, Miss.
"Alcorn plays really well against us," Melendez said. "They are an emotional team that when they feel they are in a game, they will step up and play better. We definitely have our hands full. We know what we are getting into this weekend. As I've stated throughout the season, we're going in with every intention to play our style of baseball, staying within ourselves, and leaving all of our energies on the field."
