A walk-off single from outfielder Jabronski Williams brought home the winning run for Alabama State as they defeated Florida A&M 7-6 in ten innings on Tuesday afternoon at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
After three scoreless innings, Florida A&M got on the board first in the fourth inning with a three-run homer followed by an RBI single later in the inning to take a 4-0 lead.
Alabama State responded with a run in the fifth after Cristopher DeGuzman tripled to right center and scored during the next at bat off a passed ball, and scored again in the sixth off a single to center from Jayden Sloan to bring in Kerrigan Edmonson.
The Rattlers added to their lead with two runs in the seventh, while the Hornets closed the gap to 6-3 with a sacrifice fly from Santiago Garcia to score Trenton Jamison in the bottom half of the inning.
Trailing by two scores heading into the bottom of the ninth, Alabama State tied the ball game after Garcia doubled to left field to score Jabronski Williams and pinch hitter Hunter May singled to left to bring in the tying runs to force extra innings.
After blanking Florida A&M in the final frame, Sloan reached on a double to left and was brought home by a walk-off single from Williams for the final score.
Payton Harris (2-1) picked up the win for the Hornets, pitching the final 3.1 innings and giving up just two hits against 14 batters faced and striking out four. Osvaldo Mendez worked 3.0 innings and allowed three runs off of five hits and struck out two, while Britt Buckelew came in for relief pitching 3.2 innings and giving up a single run and just three hits to go along and two strikeouts.
Alabama State will return to the field on Friday as they host conference foe Grambling State in a three-game series at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
Due to COVID-19 protocols only those listed on the player pass list will be admitted into the venue due to socially distant seating. Alabama State is a mask mandatory campus, as are each of the athletic venues.