Braves Honor Six Student-Athletes on Senior Day

LORMAN, Miss. – In the final regular season game of 2017, the Alcorn State University baseball program honored six student-athletes in a pre-game ceremony Sunday on Senior Day as the Braves fell to Alabama State 10-2 at Willie "E" Rat McGowan Stadium.
 
Alcorn (11-31, 7-17 SWAC) honored seniors Daniel Belmont, Wilfredo Crespo, Patrick McMahon, Jason Sanez, Walter Vives and Austin Willis-Greene. Crespo, McMahon and Vives majored in business administration, Belmont and Willis-Greene majored in general studies and Sanez majored in criminal justice.
 
All six seniors played in the contest as the Braves mixed around their lineup throughout the day. Junior Wallace Rios Jimenez did not play, and thus keeps his league-leading on-base streak at 37 games.
 
Vives led the Braves offensively with three hits. Crespo, McMahon and Sanez notched two hits apiece. Alcorn outhit the Hornets (27-23, 18-6 SWAC) 11-10.
 
The Braves scored both of their runs in the eighth inning. Vives doubled down the left field line and moved to third on a single by junior A.J. Makarewicz. Vives scored on an error by ASU, and Makarewicz scored on a wild pitch.
 
Alcorn used five different pitchers in the contest. McMahon got the start and lasted 2.0 innings, while sophomore Carlos Lopez gave up just one run in 3.0 frames. Willis-Greene, junior Razedrick Winters and sophomore Conrado Skepple made appearances out of the bullpen.
 
ASU was led by Cage Cox who knocked two hits and four RBI. Oscar Prioleau was also three-for-four at the plate. Austin Bizzle threw 7.2 innings and struck out six to pick up the win.
 
The Braves will enter the 2017 SWAC Championships as the No. 4 seed from the East Division. Their opponent is still unknown and will be dependent on a make-up game between Texas Southern and Southern this week. Alcorn will either face Texas Southern or Grambling State in the first round in New Orleans at Wesley Barrow Stadium.
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Bretton Richardson
Opening Statement
"We outhit them today but we gave them some runs early on and they were able to take advantage of a few situations that we put them in. We weren't able to overcome that and therefore they come out on top. We can't allow innings to spiral out of control like we did today. There's work to be done on our part before the conference tournament."
 
On the lineup
"We put some different guys in today and gave them opportunities. As we've said all year, you never know when your opportunity may come, and when it does come you need to be ready and prepared. We had a couple different guys get some hits for us."
 
On Patrick McMahon
"We started him out of appreciation for what he's done for us. He's pitched in some big games for us against some bigger competition and we wanted to say thank you. Hopefully he's not done pitching and we can get him in the game during the tournament when we really need him."
 
On his overall thoughts of the 2017 regular season
"Early on we played fairly well. We played against tough competition and I was hoping that would set the tone for us later on. Though as the season progressed, we had some things go south a little bit and we didn't respond favorably to those. We talk about adversity a lot and having guys step up when we need it, but we weren't able to overcome adverse situations this year. Hopefully we can still hit our stride, and our goal right now is to win four games in a row."

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