The Alcorn State University baseball program is the SWAC East’s #4 seed and will take on the West’s top-seeded Prairie View A&M Panthers at 6 p.m. during the Opening Round of the conference tournament at Toyota Field, home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
The Braves (6-18, 6-16 SWAC) will hope its two-and-a-half week layoff gave the team a new sense of energy as it looks to hoist its first championship trophy in ten years. The Purple and Gold rank among the nation’s top-50 clubs on the basepaths, swiping an average of 1.38 bases per contest while its pitching staff has struck out the third-highest rate of batters in the league at 8.4 whiffs per nine innings.
Alcorn’s offensive prowess begins and ends with All-SWAC First Teamer Tristin Garcia, who is second in the NCAA in hits per game (1.79) and batting average (.448) to go along with a top-15 on-base percentage (.509) and a top-20 toughest to strikeout rating (12.0).
Also among the national leaders is Khalil Smith who ranks inside the top-40 regarding walks per game (0.86).
Jose Fernandez has toed the rubber nine times (eight starts) this season and has given the Baseball Braves a chance to win during each outing. The Puerto Rican southpaw is second in the SWAC with an ERA of 2.70, which currently stands as the 9th-lowest single season earned run average in program history.
Scouting the Prairie View A&M Panthers (12-16, 12-7 SWAC)
PVAMU is coming into the tournament peaking at the right time, having won eight of its last nine games in SWAC play with its only blemish a 5-2 road loss at Grambling on April 30.
The Panthers have been excellent at racking up the toughest hit in baseball; triples, hitting the sixth-best average of three-baggers a game in the country with 0.46.
Xavier Jefferson is currently the nation’s leader in that category at 0.23 triples per game while he’s grabbed the fifth-most three-baggers in the NCAA at five. He’s also averaged nearly a stolen base every two games (0.45) to rank among the league’s top-ten.
The Baseball Braves will most likely need to battle Prairie View’s ace of the staff Wednesday night in Kyle Smith. Smith is second in the conference for walks allowed per nine innings (1.75), third in complete games (2) and sits right behind Fernandez (0.22 points back) for the second-best ERA in the SWAC (2.92).
Compared to some of its other peers in the conference, Alcorn has not faced Prairie View A&M very often, winning 10 games over 23 previous matchups.