LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program was originally scheduled to play Alabama A&M Friday through Sunday but due to thunderstorms expected this weekend, they will play games one and two on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 1 p.m. with game three up in the air.
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The Braves (6-12, 6-10 SWAC) have a pitching staff that has been able to rack up the punchouts, slotting in third among its SWAC peers with an average of 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
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Tristin Garcia has established himself as one the of nation's best all-around hitters ranking second in hits per game (1.89), fourth for batting average (.466), eighth regarding on-base percentage (.530), top-30 in the NCAA for being toughest to strike out (12.2) and top-45 in RBIs per game (1.17). The five-foot-four infielder is also fifth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in slugging percentage (0.603).
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Jose Fernandez has been a rock atop the Braves rotation in 2021, slotting as the conference's runner-up for ERA (2.09) and WHIP (1.09) plus top-five in hits allowed per nine innings (6.75).
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Khalil Smith has been a walking and run scoring force this year, placing tenth nationally in runs per game at 1.25 plus drawing an average of a walk per game (1.00) to place 12th in division one.
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Tyler Smith and
Hunter Wilson cap off the Braves leaderboard representatives, ranking top-45 in the NCAA for walks per game (0.88) and sixth in the SWAC regarding RBIs per game (1.00), respectively.
Scouting the Alabama A&M Bulldogs (6-12, 6-7 SWAC)
The Maroon and White are coming off a four-game sweep of MVSU, averaging 10.5 runs per contest.
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Teddy Bridges places third in the conference with 0.33 doubles per game and has the best stolen bases per game average on the squad at 0.33 as well.
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JanMikell Bastardo and Trevor Berkemeyer have excelled at legging out triples, ranking top-15 and top-50 in the country in triples per game at 0.13 and 0.11, respectively.
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Jose Figueroa is top-five in the Southwestern Athletic Conference for strikeouts per nine innings with 11.22.
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The Baseball Braves won two-of-three from the Bulldogs in Huntsville earlier this season and hold a significant 100 to 43 advantage in 143 meetings between the two programs.
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#FearTheBrave
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