NEW ORLEANS, La. | After nine days between games, it took Alabama State nine outs to really get things rolling in their opening game of the 2018 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Baseball Tournament at Wesley Barrow Stadium Wednesday night.
And when things got going, it was hard for Prairie View A&M to stop the Hornets' momentum as Alabama State ran to a 7-2 victory to move to the winner's bracket contest on Thursday night.
Alabama State (29-20) fell behind early as Prairie View A&M was able to get on the board courtesy of three walks and a hit batter to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Panthers' starter Darrian Williams (2-6) was able to sit down the Hornets in the first in order, before
Darrius Wright (8-1) worked out of trouble for Alabama State in the second to set the stage for the Hornets' offense later in the inning.
Gustavo Rios picked up his first of two hits, leading off the second inning with a double before advancing to third on a wild pitch.
Cage Cox followed with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch, putting runners at second and third with no one out. After two quick outs,
Hunter Phillips stepped to the plate and drove a double to the right center field gap to give Alabama State a 2-1 lead, before
Cristopher DeGuzman followed that with an RBI single for a 3-1 lead for the Hornets after two innings.
Alabama State was able to add another run in the fourth inning after
Noel Cheneau doubled down the left field line for a 4-1 lead, before being thrown out trying to stretch the play into a triple. The Panthers trimmed the deficit in half to 4-2 on a sacrifice fly, before Alabama State answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning after
Yamil Pagan reached on a one-out single, before scoring on a
Ray Hernandez single to right for a 5-1 lead.
The score stayed the way until the seventh when Rios picked up another RBI with a one out single to score
Ray Hernandez, before
Hunter Allen blasted his sixth home run of the season to left for the final margin.
Alabama State had five players pick up multiple hits in the contest, while Wright worked six innings and allowed a pair of runs off of four hits while striking out five.
Ivanniel Vazquez came on to work the final three innings of scoreless and hitless relief to pick up his fourth save of the season.
The Hornets face Grambling State tomorrow night at 6 pm, and the game will be carried on the Hornet Sports Network.
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