For the second day in a row, Talladega College has defeated a nationally ranked team. The Tornadoes defeated NAIA’s No. 15 ranked Loyola University (La.) 5-4 Sunday afternoon.
On a day that started pretty chalky, Loyola started the game in total control, as they held a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning.
Talladega, the No. 5 ranked team in Black College Nines’ HBCU baseball small school Top 10 Poll, tied the game in the bottom of the third inning. Victor Rivera walked, Miguel Oropeza singled to right field, advanced to second on a throwing error by the Loyola right fielder which moved Rivera to third. A Loyola wild pitch scored Rivera and advanced Oropeza to third. He was brought home, plating the second run in the inning, on Nomar Garcias’ sacrifice fly to center field.
Talladega took the lead on Armando Jackson’s double down the right field line, followed by an Eddie Velazquez double down the right field line, for a Tornadoes’ 3-2 lead.
Talladega College added two additional runs for a 5-2 lead in the bottom half of the six inning. The big blow, which turned out to be the game winner, was a Jose Santiago home run to left field with a runner on base.
The Wolf Pack of Loyola scored two runs in the seventh to make it a one run game, but that was all she wrote. Talladega claimed its second upset of a nationally ranked NAIA team, having beaten No. 2 Georgia Gwinnett Saturday.
Santiago was 1-for-2 including a 2-run home run and Oropeza went 2-for-3.
Samuel Guadamuz (W, 4-2) recorded the win going 4.0 innings allowing 2 runs. Juan De Dios (S, 1) Got his first save in relief.