Alcorn Game Notes l Bracket l Live Radio l Live Stats l Championship Central
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Alcorn State University baseball program will begin the 2019 SWAC Tournament on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. when it takes on Grambling State from Wesley Barrow Stadium.
Alcorn (14-29, 7-16 SWAC) is the No. 3 seed in the East Division and the Tigers (24-23, 16-8 SWAC) are the West Division's No. 2 seed.
As a team, the purple and gold currently rank in the top-35 in the NCAA for triples per game and the top-45 for triples. The Braves have hit 0.35 triples per game (3rd in SWAC) and 15 overall (4th in SWAC) in 43 games played.
The Braves are also in the top half of the SWAC in doubles per game (1.53) and strikeouts per nine innings (7.7).
In the regular season, a trio of Braves won SWAC weekly awards as seniors
Bukhari Brown and
Carlos Lopez earned Pitcher of the Week honors, while junior
Kyle Jenkins earned a Hitter of the Week accolade.
Lopez enters the tournament as Alcorn's all-time career strikeout record with 235. He passed the previous mark of 219 set by Steve Easter with a strikeout in the top of the ninth against Tougaloo on April 17th. Lopez has 63 punchouts in 2019, good for fourth in the SWAC.
Junior
Kyle Jenkins has been heating up at the dish, notching a hit in ten of his last 12 ballgames while hitting for a .378 batting average, scoring 13 runs, accumulating four doubles, a triple, 18 RBIs and five homers over that timeframe.
Jenkins is now sixth in total home runs (9) in the SWAC, while pacing the club in slugging percentage (.533), RBIs (36) and total bases (80). The catcher from Jacksonville, Florida needs one more round-tripper to become the eighth player in program history to hit double-digit homers in the season.
From April 26-28 in a three-game set with Mississippi Valley State, Jenkins went 7-for-13 (.538 average) with four home runs, seven runs scored, a double, a triple and three walks. In the series finale on April 28, Jenkins set career-highs for hits (4), home runs (3), runs scored (5) and RBIs (6) in a 14-12 series-clinching victory.
Freshman
Tristin Garcia has provided a spark as the primary leadoff hitter, as he is the club leader in hits (52) and triples (3 - 6th in SWAC).
Garcia is also among the Braves top-three in batting average (.349 - 9th in SWAC), runs scored (30), doubles (9), total bases (73), slugging (.490) and steals (5) while fronting the squad with 19 multiple-hit outings.
Senior
Brandon Barna became the 48th player in school history to reach the 100-hit milestone on March 30 with a two-RBI single in the top of the sixth versus Jackson State. Barna presently stands at 118 career base knocks which places him at 36th all-time.
Junior
Brandon Rembert paces all Braves hitters with 0.68 walks per game, a .353 batting average (8th in SWAC) and a .465 on-base percentage (5th in SWAC) while placing third or better in runs scored (38), hits (47), doubles (9), walks (27) and slugging (.504).
Junior closer
Austin Atwood has registered a win or save in nine of the team's 14 victories, as he's second in the SWAC with six saves while also picking up a team-high three wins.
Other notable Braves on the SWAC leaderboards include senior
Kirt Cormier with 1.00 runs scored per game (6th) and 28 walks (10th), senior
Jose Fernandez who has 52 strikeouts (9th), and junior
Jordan McGowan with three sacrifice flies (10th).
Cormier leads the purple and gold with a current 15-game on-base streak while both
Brandon Rembert and sophomore
Jamey Fabre have reached safely in seven straight.
Grambling swept the regular season home-and-home series and last met in the 2017 SWAC Tournament when the Braves defeated the Tigers in an 11-inning first round thriller.
The Braves will play the winner or loser of the game between the East's No. 1 seed Alabama State and the West's No. 4 seed Prairie View A&M in the team's following contest. If Alcorn wins, it will play Thursday at 3 p.m. and if Alcorn loses, it will take the field at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
All of the matchups involving Alcorn can be heard live on 91.7 FM or
wprl.org with Charles Edmond on the call.
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