LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program will attempt to further cement themselves as contenders in the SWAC's Eastern Division when it welcomes JSU to "The Reservation" for its home-opening three game series.
The Braves (3-1, 3-0 SWAC) have been one of the most dynamic offenses in the nation through the first four games of the 2021 season, scoring the tenth-most runs per game (10.0) in the nation, just outside the top-30 for on-base percentage (0.413) and topping the SWAC for batting average (0.271), slugging percentage (0.389) and homers per game (1.00).
It has not all been about the boom sticks either as the Purple and Gold front the conference in multiple categories on the mound including ERA (4.01), hits allowed per nine innings (5.88) and WHIP (1.31).
Alcorn has been fantastic in all three phases of the game as it boasts a top-15 fielding percentage (0.986) in the NCAA as well.
The pitching staff has three student-athletes with a sparkling 0.00 ERA as
Jose Fernandez,
Lane Gordon and
Kobe Head have each yielded nothing. Fernandez leads the league in WHIP (0.71) and is second for walks allowed per nine innings (1.29) while Gordon is second in WHIP (0.80) to go along with his SWAC best 3.60 hits allowed per nine innings.
A handful of Baseball Braves currently reside among the top players in the NCAA for various statistics including
Kyle Jenkins,
Khalil Smith,
Jarius Colley,
Tristin Garcia and
Jordan McGowan.
Jenkins has the third-highest walks per game average in the country at 2.00 and is third in the conference for on-base percentage (0.500).
Smith is eighth nationally with 2.00 runs per game and top-25 for steals a night at 0.75.
Colley has the tenth-best RBI per game total in the NCAA with an average of 2.50 and the highest doubles rate in the league at 0.50.
Garcia is top-15 in the country for hits per game (2.00) and RBI per game (2.00) plus top-50 in the NCAA for batting average (0.471) and on-base percentage (0.571).
Jordan McGowan is not on a national leaderboard but he does qualify as the toughest hitter to strikeout in the Southwestern Athletic Conference with a rating of 12.0.
Scouting the Jackson State Tigers (7-5, 3-0 SWAC)
The Blue and White are undefeated against SWAC competition (6-0) but only 1-5 against everyone else with its lone victory coming against NAIA competition in Tougaloo College. During its five losses the Tigers got outscored 52-4 versus Mercer (3x), Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
Alcorn batterymates will have to keep track of the JSU runners as they are one of the speediest teams in the NCAA, swiping the fourth-most steals (26) and the 12th-highest average per game (2.36).
Head Coach Omar Johnson preaches the fundamentals as the Tigers love to play small ball, currently slotting in the top-15 for sacrifice bunts at eight to go along with the tendency to steal lots of bases.
The starting rotation is headlined by Preseason SWAC Pitcher of the Year Nikelle Galatas, who has already made an NCAA-high four starts plus earning a save and is currently third in the conference for strikeouts with 18.
Jackson State had the most representatives on the Preseason All-Conference First Team as Galatas, Wesley Reyes, Equon Smith and Mario Lopez all received nods.
Smith is among the league's top-six in walks per game (1.00) and steals a contest (0.40).
Lopez has a top-25 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the country at 12.00, tops the SWAC in walks allowed per nine innings (0.64) and is one of the two players in the NCAA to have a complete game.
The Baseball Braves have battled their rivals from Jackson more times than any other program in school history, going 101-161-1 over 263 clashes.
#FearTheBrave
