ITTA BENA, Miss. – A late comeback attempt fell just short for the Alcorn State University baseball program as Mississippi Valley State ended on top 5-3 Friday at Magnolia Field.
MVSU (4-22, 4-13 SWAC) jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the first inning. The Delta Devils added one more in the sixth go up 5-0.
The Braves (8-22, 4-10 SWAC) tried to mount a comeback in the eighth inning. Senior
Walter Vives led off with a triple and scored on a double by senior
Kirt Cormier.
Jason Sanez followed with a double to move Cormier to third.
After MVSU brought in Kevin Gonzalez to pitch, senior
Justin Barna and junior
Der'Vincent Hamilton both grounded out but each picked up an RBI to make it a 5-3 game.
In the ninth, junior
Christian Acklin got on with a walk, but Gonzalez was able to retire the next three batters to end the game.
Junior
Wallace Rios Jimenez walked to start the contest which extended his on-base streak to 27. Cormier and Hamilton upped their on-base streaks to 18 and 12, respectively.
Senior
Daniel Belmont got the start but only pitched one inning. Senior
Patrick McMahon entered in relief and tossed 4.0 scoreless frames. Freshman
Anthony Acosta threw the final 3.0 innings and let up just one unearned run.
Zac Uecker lasted 6.1 innings to earn the win for the Delta Devils.
Alcorn had chances to score early but left seven runners on base in its first three at-bats.
The rubber match between the two teams is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday. The game can be heard on 91.7 FM with Charles Edmond on the call.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Bretton Richardson
Opening Statement
"Today's game was a direct opposite of yesterday's game. Yesterday we were patient, worked the count in our favor and swung and good pitches. Today, we looked like the team of the first half of the season. We weren't patient at the plate, we swung at a lot of balls in the dirt and that's why we left a lot of runners on and came out on the losing end."
On Daniel Belmont
"He just didn't have it today. I was a little disappointed in his effort because today wasn't the same guy that pitched so well for us early on."
On Alcorn's eighth inning
"Again, our guys have to understand that we need those same type of at-bats from the beginning of the game until the end of the game. There's no secrets as to what's going on. If we can't do the little things that we should be doing then we're going to come up short."
Closing Statement
"This game was really uncharacteristic of us. We didn't perform well in any aspects of the game, but sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team. Mississippi Valley came out ready to play today and scored four runs on us in the first inning and we weren't able to recover from that. We have to flush this game away now and come out ready to play tomorrow."
#FearTheBrave
