Sports

Tiger baseball struggling, won 2 out of 8 last games

The Tigers will begin SWAC play this weekend. GSU Athletics/Courtesy photo

Hoping to bounce back after a loss to the Little Rock Trojans, the Grambling Baseball team set out on a quick trip against the University of Louisiana-Monroe. The match up proved to be very tough, as ULM swept the Tigers in the weekend series. The first game saw the Tigers blanked 15-0. The group was held to just a single hit for the game and struck out 10 times as a team in the harsh loss. Pitcher Bryan Delgado suffered the loss for the match and Warhawk pitcher Ty Barnes picked up his second win of the season with a nearly perfect game and eight additional strikeouts. The second game was much closer, as the Tigers nursed a lead until the sixth inning, when the Warhawks exploded for four runs in the inning to hand Pitcher J.C. Bonilla his first loss. The deficit proved too much to come back from as the Tigers fell in the 7-6 game. Relief pitcher Justin Barton earned the victory as the teams went ahead into the third game of the series. Similar to that of the first game, the Warhawks came in with hot bats as they poured on 23 runs in the 23-12 Tiger loss. ULM made quick work of starting Tiger pitcher Jason Alvarez, as he gave up eight runs and five walks in three innings of work earning the loss. Every pitcher put in after for the Tigers gave up runs as the Warhawks scored in every inning they batted in. For the opposite dugout, the Warhawks pitchers gave up 12 runs, six of the off of Lucas Wepf who relieved winning pitcher Brock Figueroa in the team’s victory over the Tigers. Grambling then headed home for their first home games of the season against Texas College. Able to secure wins in both games, the team picked up 7-1 and 9-4 wins. Pitchers Kerry Boykins Jr. and Kaelin Woodard added wins to their records. The hot bat of Jordyn Smith, with a grand slam in the first game and two run double in the second led the way for the Tigers victory. Recent action saw the Tigers face a tough University of Texas-San Antonio team in a three game series where they fell in each match. The first match has the Roadrunners earn a victory against Delgado in his next outing in a 4-1 loss. The next game was left wide open as UTSA tacked on 17 runs, seven of which off of losing Grambling pitcher Mark Luna in his first loss of the season. The Roadrunners starter Shane Daughety picked up his third win with five innings of clean baseball. The final match ended in an 8-2 loss for the Tigers, earned on five runs in the first inning off pitcher Jason Alvarez in one inning of work. UTSA secured the win with starter Jacob Jiminez, who gave up no runs in three innings of work as six pitchers were used in the game. The loss sets the Tigers at 5-7, just under .500 as they will go head-to-head with a 3-11 Texas Southern University team in a weekend series hoping to get wins