The Grambling State baseball team wins the SWAC Championship. How sweet is the victory of defeat especially since the G-Men have not won the championship in 25 years?
Last year the Grambling State baseball team came up a game short of winning the SWAC championship in Baton Rouge. This year with the double-elimination tournament being moved to Shreveport it seemed as if it was a script for the Tigers to take home the championship.
Since it was closer to home many Grambling fans came to support their team. The Tigers were the only team in the tournament to have beaten every team in the tournament during the regular season.
Grambling came in as the third seed from the west, with Texas Southern, Mississippi Valley being one and two, and Alabama State as the fourth seed.
When you look at the match-ups it favored Grambling to play Mississippi Valley in the first round of the tournament.
They had just defeated Mississippi Valley the Friday before the tournament.
The Tigers went on to beat Valley by a score of 8-4. Alabama State had upset Texas Southern to set up the match up for the next game. Grambling then went on to pound Alabama State 17-2.
Texas Southern defeated Alabama State Valley in the elimination games set up the semi-final game with Grambling. Grambling then pushed passed Texas Southern to earn a trip to the championship game verse Alcorn who won the other bracket.
Besides it being a championship game, there were other incentives for winning. Alcorn was coached by former Grambling coach Barret Rey.
The winner not only wins the SWAC, they also win a trip to a regional to play for a chance to get to the national championship.
The game was also shown on ESPNU. With the most Grambling fans seen at a baseball game all year, Grambling went on to pound Alcorn 15-2.
The Tigers racked up on awards for the tournament as Head Coach James Cooper received the Coach of the Year award.
This was the first time a first year head coach has ever won the tournament yet alone makes the tournament. Coach Cooper was only 3 years old the last time the Tigers won it all in a convincing fashion.
The players who received All-Tournament: Adrian Turner, Grambling (MVP); Anthony Clifton(OF), Grambling; Steve Kletke(1B), Grambling; Chris Wolfe(SS), Grambling; Odingo Davila(P), Grambling. Rodney Warren, Alcorn State; Brandon Hollins, Alcorn State; Kilby Perdomo, Alcorn State; David Nolting, Southern; Bryan Smith, Texas Southern; Matthew Pace, Arkansas-Pine Bluff; Ron James, Alabama State.
“I’m very proud to be a member of the 2010 SWAC Championship team. We worked hard our hard work paid off.
“We are the members of a winning team and I am thankful for each and every player, coach and supporter of Grambling athletics,” said Adrian Turner, junior sports management major from Kenosha, Wis.