Sports

Tigers beat Jags to stay atop SWAC West

Photo courtesy of GSU Athletics Communications.

The Grambling State baseball team traveled to Baton Rouge last weekend to play the rival the Southern Jaguars in a three-game set that went down to a deciding rubber match on Sunday.

 

In Game One, Grambling jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the second with a solo shot from Cameron Bufford, and after three shutout innings from Lorenzo Peterson on the mound for Grambling, Southern finally got to him in the fourth inning, tying up the game 1-1 up until the sixth inning when the Jaguars took a 3-1 lead.

 

The score stayed that way until the eighth inning, when Tigers’ shortstop Keanu Jacobs-Guishard launched a solo home run over the left field wall to bring the Tigers within one run. 

 

Shortly afterward, Nasir Frederick’s RBI single tied the game at 3-3.

 

Things stayed tied up until the 11th inning, when Keylon Mack hit a solo home run to left field to give Grambling a 4-3 lead before Julian Murphy added another run an RBI single to make the score 5-3 heading into the bottom of the 11th. 

 

But Grambling would not hold the lead as Southern scored three runs in the bottom of the 11th to win the game.

 

Game Two was a much different story for Grambling.

 

Both pitchers came out on their A games as each tossed four scoreless innings to start the game off before a leadoff double by Julian Murphy in the fifth got things going for Grambling, which used back-to-back bunts to take a 1-0 lead.

 

Grambling struck again in the sixth inning on an RBI double down the left field line from first baseman Keylon Mack. Following two walks to load the bases up, Grambling pushed its advantage to 3-0.

 

Southern scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but that would be all they got as GSU’s Jacorey Boudreaux came in and closed things down for the Tigers to secure the 3-2 Grambling win.

 

The rubber game on Sunday was the all-important game for both teams with the series being tied at 1-1. 

 

Unlike the previous two games of the weekend, scoring was not hard to find in Game Three. Southern jumped out quick to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a couple of errors and miscues from Grambling early on.

 

The Tigers settled down and scored two runs in the top of the second inning, but Southern wasn’t done scoring yet. The Jaguars scored two more runs in the bottom of the second to bring their lead to 5-2.

 

Grambling responded quickly with a big seven-run inning highlighted by a Julian Murphy grand slam to give the Tigers a 10-5 lead. The Tigers tacked on three more runs to secure a 13-6 victory as well as winning the series.

 

Grambling is currently in first place of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division and next will play a key weekend home series against Prairie View.