Alcorn Game Notes
LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program will attempt to halt a five-game slide on Tuesday evening when it travels to Grambling to take on the Tigers at 6 p.m.
Alcorn (6-16, 1-7 SWAC) has been top-tier team in the SWAC when it comes to fielding percentage (.947), homers (13), strikeouts per nine innings pitched (7.5) and triples (6).
Senior starting pitcher
Carlos Lopez enters the game ranked fourth all-time in school history in career strikeouts with 203. He needs 17 more to break Steve Easter's mark of 219 and one more to tie for third with
Jahborus Smith. He has totaled 31 punchouts in 32.1 innings of work in 2019.
Junior
Travaris Cole (who missed last weekend's series against Missisippi Valley State with an injury) leads the Braves in hits (26), RBIs (20), total bases (44), slugging percentage (.629) and home runs (4) while placing in the top-three among Alcorn hitters in batting average (.371), doubles (4) and triples (1). Cole has ten multi-hit games, five multi-RBI games which are both tops on the team.
The Southwest Mississippi Community College transfer has been the Braves' most reliable offensive threat in his first season, as he currently is top-five in the SWAC for hits per game (1.44), homers per game (0.22) and slugging percentage (.629).
Freshman
Tristin Garcia has stepped in and shined brightly for Alcorn, as he's top-three in average (.333), runs scored (14), doubles (4), RBIs (13), homers (2), total bases (35) and hits (25).
Three different Braves have on-base streaks of five or more as junior
Brandon Rembert leads the way (12), junior
Jordan McGowan (8), and senior
Brandon Barna (5).
Rembert has been heating up for the Braves, going 17-for-37 over the club's last ten games which equates to a .459 batting average with eight runs scored, five doubles, four RBIs and a home run over that span.
Senior
Brandon Barna is four hits away from 100 in his career. He'd become the 48th player in school history to reach that milestone. Barna is tops among Braves hitters in doubles (5) and triples (2) while being in the top-third for homers (2), total bases (37), RBIs (13) and hits (22).
Redshirt junior closer
Austin Atwood has put the finishing touches on a majority team's six victories, as he's second in the SWAC with four saves.
Grambling State (10-13, 7-5) was tabbed to finish second in the SWAC West Division, grabbing six first-place votes along the way.
The Tigers enter the matchup losers of four straight, getting swept at Southern this past weekend and falling to Jackson State last Tuesday.
Isaiah Torres is the most well-rounded offensive player on the Tigers squad, leading the team in batting average (.383), hits (31), RBIs (19) and walks (17). Drexler Macaay is a long-ball threat for GSU, launching four dingers to go along with 17 runs batted in and 20 runs scored.
On the bump, reliever Kevin Whitaker Jr. (1.69 ERA) and starter Bryan Delgado (3.16 ERA) have been the stalwart performers for the black and gold, with Delgado holding a 4-2 record and tossing a complete game shutout victory on March 15 vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Alcorn and Grambling met four times in 2018, with the Tigers taking all four ballgames.
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