The pitching of Stillman College’s Caleb DeRouen (1-1) went the distance for the Tigers, 7.0 innings, and gave up just four hits while striking out 11 batters. Stillman scored two runs in a pitchers dual with Georgetown College, Kentucky as the game remained scoreless until the 6th inning when Stillman Alex Urban drove in the eventual game winning run. It was more than DeRouen needed as Georgetown went down in order to give the home Tigers their first victory of the season.
Florida Memorial University baseball team opened conference play at home in Miami, Florida against Warner University. Devin Hadley started on the mount for the Lions and did everything he could to give his team a win, and succeeded as the bats of Warner just could not figure out the Lions pitcher. Hadley was brilliant, 9 innings pitched, allowed 5 hits, 1 earned run in FMU 2-1 win. Hadley was able to get out of several jams. The Royals in the top of the fourth inning threatened to tie the game, an RBI double plated one run putting runners on second and third with nobody out. A ground ball that got the runner out at third put runners on first and second, the Lions got a ground ball double play to end the inning. The Royals would mount another threat but Florida Memorial threw a runner out at the plate trying to score. Highly touted freshmen catcher Jose Chavez was 1 for 3 with a single in the bottom of the six inning.
Harris-Stowe State University is off to a good start, with a double-hitter four game sweep on the road this weekend over Crowley Ridge College in Paragould, Arkansas. The Hornets beat Crowley Ridge 4-0 and 12-3 in the first doubleheader, 15-1 and 23-8 in the second doubleheader to break out the brooms. Pitching was lights out as the starters went six innings plus with shut down baseball. Deon Herron is 2-0 with a 2.45 earning run average, threw a complete game Friday’s 12-3 win, while he has yet to walk a batter. Jordan Dreibelbis is 1-1 with a 1.00 earned run average with 9 k’s and 1 walk. Dylan Yankle has been Harris-Stowe best player so far. He is 14-23 (.609) with 2 home runs and 12 RBI and Jordan Weaks is 9-14 (.571) with 9 runs batted in and 1 home run. The Hornets are, 6-2.
Edward Waters College baseball team played its doubleheader against Bluefield College Saturday afternoon in a scheduled doubleheader, winning on a walkoff home run in the first game, 2-1. A pitcher’s duel was played out in the first game with EWC Frederick Belz, and BC Christian Sinnott dealt in the opening frames. The Wildcats broke through in the first inning after a leadoff walk to Bryan Rodriguez, made its way to second base on a single up the middle by Juan Bracamonte. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Jordan Pontious reaches base, Rodriguez scores on an error by second baseman to take a 1-0 lead to the bottom of the first. The lead held up, Belz retired the first two batters he faced before giving up a home run to Bluefield Erik Williams to tie the game in the top half of the six inning. Belz pitched a gem going 8 IP, 5 K, 3 hits, 1 earned run before the miscue. In extra-innings, Black College Nines Elite shortstop Jordan Pontious delivered the game winning walk-off home run to left field.
Talladega College baseball team took two out of three games in their weekend series to go 11-1 for the season against Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Georgia. The Tornados won the opening series first game 9-1, split the scheduled doubleheader losing 5-2, then defeated Brewton-Parker 10-3 to earn the series. Freshmen shortstop Jorge Rodrigues played great defense, also put up some big offensive numbers. In the three games Jorge went 6 for 11 with four runs batted in the first game, but in the series quencher, Jorge went 4 for 5 with 4 runs batted in, two singles, 1 double and 1 triple.