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 Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:53 am Post subject: Southern Beats Grambling 17-1 |
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| Quote: | Pitching shines in SU win
By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
Advocate sportswriter
Even in a 17-1 laugher -- and Grambling's defense piled up the yucks with a season-worst nine errors -- Southern University's pitchers showed plenty of backbone.
Starter Joshua Kirk let the leadoff runner reach in all five of his innings, then Jose Pena got out of jams in the sixth and the seventh.
And all Grambling, which had a respectable nine hits, had to show for those opportunities was a two-out, RBI single in the third inning.
"We pitched well. That was the key," SU coach Roger Cador said. "They battled back and pitched well. You have to admire him for that. But against better teams, you're not going to be able to get off like that."
With its second straight three-game Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division series sweep, SU has won 12 of its last 14 games. Plus, the Jaguars (20-14, 15-6 Western Division) stayed tied with Texas Southern (18-17, 15-6) atop the division heading into the final regular-season weekend.
SU hosts Prairie View (27-21, 12-9), which beat the Jaguars twice in three games in March, on Saturday and Sunday. Defending SWAC champion TSU finishes at Grambling (11-29, 6-14), which has lost four in a row and 16 of 19.
The SWAC tournament is May 19-22 at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.
Kirk (3-3) and Pena combined for nine strikeouts against two walks. Christopher Barrett closed the game with a scoreless ninth to lower his ERA to 1.69.
"We just told them to take their time, relax and hit their spots," SU catcher Brandon Mason said. "Once they started hitting their spots and getting ahead, we were able to mix in the off-speed a little better.
"They always battled. Our pitchers are very nitty-gritty. They're going to battle."
Meanwhile, red-hot Darren Clark went 4-for-6 with two doubles, with four RBIs and three runs. He's raised his batting average to .375 from .229 since March 29, going 19-for-32 (with six homers) in the last 10 games.
Plus, Mario Spann and Gerard Gause went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. Mason (with four runs and a double), Kevin Nelson (with two runs, two RBIs and a sacrifice hit), Gene Filyaw (with two RBIs, one run, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly) and Brandon Revis (with one run) all had two hits.
"I just couldn't seem to get that first guy out," Kirk said. "I had to dig deep and find a way to get out of every inning, but the defense backed me up a lot. Brandon did a good job calling the game. Seventeen runs doesn't hurt, either."
With its defense as bad as or worse than its pitching, Grambling never had a chance, with SU piling up 20 hits and putting together jumbo innings of four, five and six runs.
Of its nine errors, the Tigers twice had two on the same play and three others came after a hit. Only two of the errors stood by themselves.
The only thing Grambling's defense didn't do was throw a glove at the ball.
Grambling simply unraveled after closing to 2-1 in the top of the third. SU scored four runs off five errors, a walk, a wild pitch, a passed ball and no hits in the bottom of that inning.
Mason, who led off the third, reached on an error, a ball that ricocheted off second baseman Anthony Johnson, slid into second base and slid into third, on another error, all on the same play. Then he scored on a wild pitch for a 3-1 lead.
"I saw it go off him, and then he wasn't hustling after the ball," Mason said, "so I took my time and went to second. Then when the ball got away from the third baseman, I noticed nobody was at third, so I kept on rolling. Hustling, hustling, hustling."
Clark then reached on an error and Nelson walked. They moved to second and third on a passed ball and scored when Gause's grounder went through shortstop Chris Sharp's legs. Gause, meanwhile, scooted all the way to third on the same play as left fielder Marques Hatch misplayed the ball.
Then Gause came home, for a 6-1 lead on Revis' sacrifice fly.
In a five-run sixth, Clark had a two-RBI, ground-rule double. Nelson then singled, with an error, to drive in two more. And Spann's double scored Nelson for an 11-1 lead.
In a six-run eighth, after two leadoff singles, Filyaw singled, with a high, errant throw from Hatch allowing Spann to score. Then Nelson had a sacrifice hit, Michael Gavion an RBI single, Kellen Clark a two-out home run to left-center field and Darren Clark an RBI single.
Meanwhile, the ability of SU's pitchers to work out of trouble kept this one from becoming a shootout.
Or maybe they were just trying to create some drama.
•In the first, Kirk had two on and one out before inducing two popups.
•In the second, he faced two on and no outs but caught a liner and fired to first for a double play.
•In the fifth, Grambling began with back-to-back singles, but Kirk struck out the next two batters and Filyaw made a dazzling dive to catch a popup just in foul territory.
•In the sixth, Pena hit a batter and gave up a single with one out. But he induced a popup and threw out Hatch.
•And in the seventh, after Courtney Jones followed a leadoff walk with a double to put runners on second and third with no outs (with Grambling down 11-1), Pena struck out the next three batters.
"You never want to let the runner on base to start an inning," Pena said. "But that's what pitching is, you have to get out of those kinds of jams. When I got those first two guys on base (in the seventh), I was thinking, they're not going to score. That's the way you have to do it. You have to adjust and keep pitching."
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TheDude321
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Joined: Apr 18, 2005
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| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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The Jags are now 20-14 and tied for first place in the SWAC Western Division after originally starting out 8-12. They are on the move!
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