Alcorn Game Notes
LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program plays host to bitter rival Jackson State this weekend for the final conference series of the campaign with Senior Day festivities taking place before first pitch of Sunday's 1 p.m. start.
As a unit, Alcorn currently ranks in the top-50 in the NCAA for triples per game and the top-65 for triples. The purple and gold have hit 0.33 triples per game and 13 overall in the 40 games played.
The Braves are also in the upper half of the conference in doubles per game (1.55), homers per game (0.60) and strikeouts per nine innings (7.8) along with the aforementioned triples.
Senior
Carlos Lopez enters the series as Alcorn's all-time career strikeout record with 230. 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 58 punchouts in 2019, good for fourth in the SWAC.
Junior
Kyle Jenkins has been raking of late, tallying a hit in eight of his last nine ballgames while hitting for a .378 batting average, scoring 12 runs, accumulating three doubles, a triple, 14 RBIs and five homers over that span.
Jenkins is now fourth in homers per game (0.23), fifth in total home runs (9) and tenth in slugging percentage (.550) in the SWAC. 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.
Last weekend in the 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 Sunday, Jenkins set career-highs for hits (4), home runs (3), runs scored (5) and RBIs (6) in a 14-12 series-clinching victory. That performance earned him SWAC Hitter of the Week honors.
Freshman
Tristin Garcia has provided a huge boost as the primary leadoff hitter, as he is the club leader with a .350 batting average (10th in SWAC), 48 hits and three triples (6th in SWAC).
Garcia is also among the top-three in total bases (67), slugging percentage (.489), on-base percentage (.414) and stolen bases (4) while pacing the squad with 17 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 115 career base knocks which places him in a tie for 36th with Kris Peters (2001-2003) and Josh Brumfield (2008-2011).
Junior
Brandon Rembert has been a pleasant surprise in his first season with the club, leading all Braves hitters with nine doubles and a .463 on-base percentage (7th in SWAC) while placing third or better in average (.342), runs scored (33), hits (41) and slugging (.508). Rembert is among the top-35 nationally with a 12.0 toughest to strike out rating.
Junior closer
Austin Atwood has put the finishing touches on a majority team's 13 victories, as he's second in the SWAC with six saves while also picking up three wins, tied for the best total on the club.
Other notable Braves on the SWAC leaderboards include senior
Kirt Cormier with 1.00 runs scored per game (6th) and 28 walks (8th), senior
Jose Fernandez who has 48 strikeouts (10th), and junior
Jordan McGowan with three sacrifice flies (8th).
Kirt Cormier leads the purple and gold with a current 12-game on-base streak while sophomore
Jamey Fabre (6) and
Jordan McGowan (5) have more modest streaks going.
Scouting the Jackson State Tigers
Jackson State (27-20, 13-8 SWAC) are locked into the SWAC East's second seed for the conference tournament in just under two weeks, using a NCAA-best 15-game winning streak to fuel its rise up the standings.
The Tigers began its winning streak with a win over Alcorn on March 31 and was finally snapped on Saturday when Alabama State defeated the blue and gray 3-2 in Montgomery. Alabama State would win the series the following day and clinch the SWAC Eastern Division title.
As a team, JSU has been dominant on the offensive side, placing inside the top-10 nationally in batting average (.315) and stolen bases (101), top-15 in hits (482), on-base percentage (.408) and steals per game (2.15) as well as top-25 in runs scored (339) and triples (16).
At the plate, Jaylyn Williams has been red-hot all season long. Williams is hitting a blistering .404 average (19th in the country) on the season with 63 hits (top-50 in NCAA), 41 runs, 14 doubles (2nd in SWAC) and 47 RBIs (top-50 in NCAA) to front the Tigers potent attack.
If junior outfielder Equon Smith gets on-base, it's a virtual lock that he will try to swipe a base. Smith is among the top-six players in the country at 36 steals and 0.78 stolen bases per game. He has only been caught five times in 41 attempts, good for an 88% success rate.
Four Jackson State starting pitchers have ERAs south of four as Garth Cahill (2.81), Kevin Perez (2.82), Brandon Valentin (3.82) and Nikelle Galatas (3.87) have started at least 17 games for the Tigers. The quartet has a combined four complete games and registered two shutouts.
Alcorn and Jackson State last met over the final weekend in March with JSU winning two-of-three.
#FearTheBrave
