Cleveland, Miss. – The second ranked Delta State Statesmen rallied for nine runs over the final three innings to beat the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas 9-3 in the first round of the NCAA South Central Region Tournament. Click here for boxscore.
The Javelinas are now 31-30 while Delta State improves to 46-9 and has won 28 of its last 29 games.
Javelina starter Sam Strickland worked the first 5.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and took the loss to fall to 7-5.
Delta State starter Korey Cunningham pitched a complete 10-hitter to improve to 10-1. Delta State is now 23-2 at home this season.
The bottom four hitters in the Javelina lineup – Wiley Crowson, Gil Perez (Odem), Lee Venegas and Erik Gomez, each had two hits and drove in all three runs.
The Hogs shocked the partisan Statesman crowd by scoring three runs in the top of the fourth to grab the lead.
After one out, Crowson singled to left and Perez followed with a single to right. Venegas then doubled to left center to score Crowson and Gomez followed with a two-run single to right.
But the Hogs would muster only three hits the rest of the game.
Delta State scored four runs on four singles in the bottom of the sixth, the final run being unearned.
In the top of the seventh the Javelinas had a chance to tie the game, but a spectacular defense play stymied the rally.
Taylor Everett led off the inning by reaching on an error and then stole second base. James Brown (Corpus Christi King) hit a bloop into shallow right field that looked as if it would drop in and score Everett, but Statesman second baseman Clay Sartain made a diving over the shoulder catch running towards the outfield and doubled Everett off second base.
The Statesmen took that momentum and scored two in the seventh and three in the eighth to pull away.
“Baseball is a momentum built game,” said Javelina head coach Russell Stockton. “We built some momentum, but then you have to build on it inning by inning. We had runners in scoring position the first three innings and didn’t capitalize. Once the momentum turned in the sixth it was hard to get it back. I thought we played pretty well, got 10 hits against them. The small things got to us. We’ve got to win four games. There are no bonus points for winning the first game. Delta State has a great ballclub, but it’s nothing different than we faced last weekend.”
Stockton agreed that what chance the Hogs still had, faded with the defensive play of the game in the seventh.
“That was a big-league web gem,” said Stockton. “It was a big play. If that falls it may get them into their bullpen. I think everyone thought it was a hit except the second baseman.”
The Javelinas will face the number two seed Southern Arkansas in an elimination game Saturday morning 11:00 a.m.
