PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Alcorn State University baseball program continued to pound the baseball in Saturday's game two victory, smashing three home runs in a lopsided 12-1 landslide victory over the Panthers.
Junior Travaris Cole was an absolute monster at the dish, clobbering both an inside-the-park home run as well as mashing one over the fence to go along with three hits and five RBIs in an all-around dominating effort.
Freshmen Tristin Garcia and Jaden Smith were major contributors with the sticks, as Garcia launched his second homer of the year while picking up two ribbies and Smith tattooed a three-RBI triple that saw him come around to score on an errant throw from the outfield.
Senior starting pitcher Jose Fernandez completely stifled the Panthers offense, hurling eight lights out innings of scoreless ball, allowing only two hits (no-hitter through five) and four walks while retiring four hitters on strikeouts.
The Braves and the Panthers both came out sluggish on the offensive end as neither side could garner a single run through the first four innings of the ballgame. Tristin Garcia stepped to the plate with one down in the fifth and ended the stalemate, demolishing a pitch over the outfield wall to push the visiting nine in front 1-0. The very next batter saw Travaris Cole earn one of the rarest offensive feats in baseball, motoring all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run to hand the Braves an unorthodox two-run cushion.
The top of the sixth saw the visitors from Lorman break the game wide open. A leadoff double by junior Brandon Rembert and savvy situational hitting saw Garcia come to bat with men on the corners and one down. Garcia struck out but reached first on a wild pitch, allowing Rembert to score in the process and giving Alcorn State University a 3-0 edge. Cole would make the Panthers pay once again, blasting a no-doubt three-run bomb for his second dinger over the fence and third total homer of the series to blow the lid off the game at 6-0 Braves.
Jose Fernandez went the first five innings of the contest without giving up a single Prairie View base knock before Xavier Jefferson ended the no-no with a sharply hit single to right field to begin the sixth. Fernandez remained unflappable, proceeding to strikeout the next batter before eventually inducing a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.
The PVAMU crowd saw the Braves hang another four-spot on the board in the top of the seventh. The big blow came via Jaden Smith's three-run triple where he managed to score on the play to balloon the Alcorn advantage to 10-0.
Alcorn notched one more in the eighth on an RBI single from redshirt senior Kirt Cormier and Prairie View managed to avoid the shutout with a run in the ninth but the Alcorn Braves secured its first winning streak of the year with a lopsided 12-1 win.
Alcorn baseball eyes its first sweep of 2019 when it takes the field tomorrow afternoon for a 1 p.m. start.
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