DI/SWAC/Baseball
aamu sports info
HUNTSVILLE, AL — The Bulldogs held off a Mississippi Valley State comeback attempt but weren’t able to hold off the rain Sunday in a 14-8 win over the Delta Devils.
AAMU Glove Ball Mud
The Bulldogs, 7-5, swept the three-game series to open their SWAC schedule and have won four in a row and five of their last six games.
“We’ll take the ‘W’,” said head coach Mitch Hill. “Our pitching struggled but we had good plays behind them.”
Bulldogs starter Caleb Roberts gave up just one run and three hits and had four strikeouts through the first four innings. But he ran into trouble in the fifth when the Delta Devils scored three runs.
In the third inning, MVSU loaded the bases with two outs. Greg Waddell hit a looping catch over first base but Austin Hulsey made an over the shoulder catch to end the threat.
“That was a big play by Hulsey,” Hill said.
Hulsey then led off the A&M third with a double to right and scored on Andrew Utterback’s single.
Roberts was given offensive support early when the Bulldogs scored four runs in the first stringing together a walk, another Hulsey double, a pair of walks and a Richard Payne 2-RBI double.
MVSU’s three-run fifth cut A&M’s lead to 7-4.
Then, after the sixth, the rains came and the two teams waited out a 30-minute delay. There was a continuous light drizzle throughout the rest of the game.
A&M reliever Derek Winter came out of the break strong, giving up a walk to go with a fly ball out and two strikeouts.
The Bulldogs didn’t go as quietly in their half of the seventh. With two outs, Julio Nunez hit a towering home run over the left-field wall to bring in Hulsey and widen the gap to 9-4.
The Delta Devils responded with four runs in the eighth, chasing Winter and cutting the lead to 9-8. Utterback came on in relief, giving up a sacrifice bunt and a single, before coaxing a fly out and strikeout to end the inning.
The Bulldog bats awoke in the eighth, scoring five runs, highlighted by Hulsey’s 2-RBI single and a 14-8 lead.
Utterback then struck out the side in the ninth – while yielding a two-out single – to preserve the win.