Lady Braves Host PVAMU to Begin Conference Play
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Lady Braves Host PVAMU to Begin Conference Play

Alcorn Game Notes | Live Stats

LORMAN, Miss. – The quest for a third consecutive SWAC East Division title begins Friday for the Alcorn State University softball program when it begins league action against Prairie View A&M at 3 p.m. at the Alcorn Softball Complex.
 
Alcorn (2-10) and PVAMU (10-7) will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. to close out the series. It's the first meeting between the two teams since 2016 when Alcorn won two of three on the road. The Lady Braves are 14-8 all-time against the Panthers.
 
"We are excited to get to conference play. We have the defending champions coming in and we are looking forward to the opportunity," said Alcorn head coach Josef Rankin.
 
Alcorn will look to start out with a winning record after opening weekend for the fourth year in a row. Last season, the Lady Braves took two out of three from Southern on the road. It came after Alcorn swept Grambling in 2017, and swept Southern in 2016.
 
"It's going to be a test for us. As a coach, you hope that your non-conference schedule prepares you for those weekends. We will see. We will see if we are learning how to handle adversity and find a way to overcome those times when things are tough," Rankin said.
 
On Tuesday, Alcorn played its first game in 13 days in a doubleheader at Southern Miss. It came after a cancelation and gap in the schedule. The Lady Braves scattered five hits over the two games.
 
Senior Victoria Tyler ranks 13th all-time in Alcorn history with 105 hits. Her 100th hit came on a home run against Georgia Tech on Feb. 24. It was part of back-to-back homers for the Lady Braves as sophomore Amari Ramsey followed with a bomb to right field.
 
Tyler and junior Brittney Triplett lead the Lady Braves at the plate with .333 batting average. Tyler carries team-highs in on-base percentage (.500) and slugging (.433). Triplett has a team-high four multi-hit games on the season.
 
The Lady Braves have stuck to a two-pitcher rotation. Senior Paige Taylor has thrown six complete games in eight appearances with a 3.79 ERA and a pair of wins. Junior Ambria Dorsey has struck out 20 batters in 34.1 innings with four complete games.
 
Alcorn has outscored the opposition 11-9 in the first inning and 6-1 in the seventh.
 
PVAMU turned in a strong non-conference resume. It posted wins over Howard, N.C. Central, SIU-Edwardsville, UTSA, Wichita State and doubleheader sweeps over TAMU-Corpus Christi and Delaware State.
 
Destinee Williams leads the team at the plate with a .412 average and .608 slugging. She's started in all 17 games and tallied 21 hits. In the circle, Crystal Castillo holds a 4.3 record and has thrown six complete games in seven starts.
 
The Panthers won the SWAC Tournament last year. After losing their first game, they responded by winning six in a row to take the title.
 
"We have had pretty good energy this week. We have to come out and do a great job of competing on every pitch and defending our home. That's the mission for us and we are going to get after it and see what happens," Rankin said.
 
The Lady Braves are the two-time defending SWAC East Division champions. They've posted three consecutive winning seasons in conference for the first time in program history. Alcorn is 24-12 SWAC the last two seasons and 35-18 SWAC the last three seasons; both marks are the best in the SWAC East Division.
 
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