ITTA BENA, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program saw junior catcher Kyle Jenkins destroy three home runs and the offense rack up a season-high 20 hits in a 14-12 series-clinching seesaw battle.
Nine separate Braves had hits and six had RBIs on the day with Junior Brandon Rembert (2), senior Kirt Cormier (2), Kyle Jenkins (4), senior Brandon Barna (3), junior Jordan McGowan (3) and senior Brendly Martina (3) all notched multiple base knocks.
Jenkins had a day for the ages, obliterating three homers to record his first career game with multiple long balls while accumulating a career-best five RBIs in the process. The catcher from Jacksonville, Florida had an outstanding weekend versus The Valley, crushing four home runs and driving home nine RBIs in three games.
Junior Austin Atwood (3-1) earned the victory, shutting down the Delta Devils over the final 3.2 innings of the ballgame as he allowed just one hit and zero runs to seal the contest.
Senior starting pitcher Carlos Lopez had a solid showing, tossing 8.0 innings of seven-run ball (six earned) while surrendering six hits and mowing through nine Delta Devils batters.
Brendly Martina accumulated his first multi-hit and first multi-RBI outing of the campaign, going 3-for-6 with two RBIs and a run scored.
Brandon Rembert added two doubles to the ledger to go along with one run scored and an RBI.
Sophomore Andrew Meadows, freshman Tristin Garcia, Brandon Barna and Jordan McGowan rounded out the RBI-producers for the purple and gold.
Tristin Garcia showed off his patience with a leadoff walk to begin the contest. After a fly ball out, the Braves busted out the hit and run with Kirt Cormier delivering a single to move Garcia to third. A wild pitch on ball four to Kyle Jenkins brought home the game's first run.
Jordan McGowan drove in another with an RBI fielder's choice and Brendly Martina laced a two-RBI single through the left side hole to get a 4-0 head start on the Delta Devils to begin the game. Mississippi Valley State made sure that the lead did not last long as the home nine got a grand slam from Wendell Rieves to cap off a five-run first inning as MVSU went ahead 5-4.
Alcorn swung momentum right back on its side as Jenkins launched a no-doubt home run through the windshield of a parked car behind the left field fence, putting the Braves back in front in the top of the second, 6-5 Alcorn. Lopez came back with a vengeance in the bottom half, hurling a 1-2-3 frame and retiring five straight Delta Devils in response to the grand slam.
Alcorn got a contributions from the bottom of the order in the third with Martina picking up another single and sophomore Jamey Fabre doubled before the nine-hitter freshman Andrew Meadows drove him in with an RBI groundout. Tristin Garcia and Brandon Rembert kept the rally going with consecutive two-out RBI-producing hits as Garcia had a single and Rembert hit a hotshot double into the left field corner to up the purple and gold's advantage to 9-5.
Lopez got into some trouble in the third with runners on first and second but got a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
Jenkins stepped to the plate in the fourth with Cormier on first and went deep once again for his second two-run homer of the contest to pump the Braves advantage up to 11-5. Brandon Barna reached on a single and McGowan doubled before the Delta Devils could record an out in the inning but Alcorn left them stranded as The Valley's pitching staff escaped without further damage.
The bottom of the fourth saw Carlos Lopez blow the Delta Devils away, striking out the side to retain the 11-5 upper hand. MVSU returned the favor with a 1-2-3 inning of its own in the top of the fifth.
Valley trimmed the Alcorn lead to 11-7 but catcher Kyle Jenkins was not finished sending balls into orbit, hitting his third round-tripper of the contest (a solo shot) to pick up his fifth RBI and give the visitors from Lorman a 12-7 lead in the top of the sixth.
Lopez rounded out his solid performance with two more scoreless frames, exiting at the end of the eighth inning. Alcorn had a 12-7 advantage going into the bottom of the ninth but Mississippi Valley stormed back to tie the score at 12 and send the game to extras.
Austin Atwood came on with one out in the ninth and stopped the bleeding then proceeded to keep the Delta Devils off the scoreboard in the tenth. Alcorn State University had a chance to go ahead in the top of the 11th with runners on second and third with one out but could not capitalize. Atwood continued to silence MVSU in the bottom of the 11th to send it to the 12th.
In the top of the 12th with a man on second, who else but Kyle Jenkins stepped into the box and delivered his sixth RBI of the afternoon, hitting a triple to left field to bring home the go-ahead run. Barna came up next and promptly scored Jenkins from third with a line drive single to put the purple and gold on top 14-12.
Atwood continued to blank the green and red home squad in the 12th to secure his third win of the season, clinching a series win, and notching the Braves' second consecutive victory, 14-12.
Alcorn baseball will play its final non-SWAC opponent on Tuesday evening when the Braves travel to Louisiana-Monroe to take on the Warhawks.
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