Grambling State University’s baseball team is off to a rough start to the season with just a 2 – 9 record.
Fresh off their win against Wiley College, the GSU Tigers traveled to New Orleans for a three-day tournament, the MLB Urban Youth Invitational, against some of the toughest teams in the SWAC. The first game began on Friday, with the Tigers defeating the conference rival Southern University 6-1.
Grambling’s remarkable offensive prowess proved strong yet again as several players recorded multiple hits, lead by senior outfielder Edwin Drexler.
Drexler gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead after he tripled in the bottom of the sixth inning, sending teammates Roger Diaz and Yariel Medina crashing into home plate. Drexler then scored after a single, bringing the score to 4-0 at the end of the sixth inning.
Grambling displayed excellent pitching as well. Starting first-year pitcher Andre Wilson struck out seven of twenty-five batters faced, allowing six hits and one earned run in 7 innings of play.
Relief pitching pair Hoover and Brennan Williams pitched one inning each, recording three strikeouts to end the game.
In the final two days of the MLB Urban Youth Invitational. There the GSU Tigers fell to both the Alcorn State University Braves 15 – 10 and the University of New Orleans Privateers 12 – 4 respectively.
Against the Braves, the Tigers put forth a valiant effort, often scoring multiple runs in single innings to tie the game, but the sheer hitting ability of Alcorn’s Earl Burl, who went 5-5 on the night including a triple and a home run, proved to be too much for the Tigers offense.
After trading runs for the first three innings, the University of New Orleans Privateers grabbed the lead after an error by outfielder Edwin Drexler, and never looked back. The Tigers recorded a season high four errors in the loss.
Next The Tigers traveled to Corvallis, Or., where they faced off against the Oregon State University Beavers.
In the three game set the Tigers suffered all losses. In the first game the score was 7 – 10, played on Feb. 27. The next games were on Feb. 28, a double-header where the Tigers fell 3 – 25, in the first game and 2 – 9 in the final game.
Then the Tigers traveled to Baton Rouge to face off against the Louisiana State University Tigers, where they fell 1 – 7, on March 4. LSU only has one loss on the season and they were too much for GSU to overcome in the end. GSU only had five hits and scored a single run to LSU’s 7. LSU’s Jake Fraley alone had four hits and a stolen base.
The GSU Tigers will begin SWAC play facing off against Texas Southern in Houston, March 7 at 1 p.m.