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Alabama State baseball started its season with a walk-off loss in extra innings to Southern. On Sunday, the Hornets brought matters full circle.
Corey King hit the cross-beforehand RBI double within the 14th inning, and Alabama State (34-23) beat Southern 6-5 inside the SWAC Tournament championship game at Regions Field in Birmingham, incomes the convention’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Hornets will discover where and who they’re gambling all through the match choice display Monday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.
The SWAC championship and NCAA Tournament berth are the second one in Alabama State’s records. In 2016, the Hornets went undefeated in convention play en course to qualifying for the Tallahassee Regional, wherein they lost to Florida State and South Alabama.
Alabama State, which finished with the best report within the SWAC throughout the normal season at 21-eight, beat Texas Southern and gained two games towards Bethune-Cookman to increase to Sunday’s title game.
The Hornets led 2-0, 3-2, four-three and 5-four at diverse points, but the Jaguars (27-31) got here lower back to tie on every occasion. After Kyler McIntosh scored the move-beforehand run on an error in the thirteenth inning, Southern loaded the bases without a outs inside the backside of the body and subsequently equalized.
Ian Matos led off the 14th with an infield unmarried. King, the SWAC Player of the Year, drove the primary pitch he saw deep to centerfield and out of reach, scoring Matos.
Osvaldo Mendez, who relieved Breon Pooler in the 13th inning, picked up the win. Mendez walked two batters in the bottom of the 14th however got Jaylen Armstrong to hit into a double play to quit the sport.
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King went 3-for-7, together with the pass-in advance double. McIntosh went 2-for-6 with a homer and RBIs. Jabronski Williams went 2-for-6 with a triple. Matos went 2-for-6 with a double. Hunter May hit a -run home run.
Pooler entered the game in the 7th inning and pitched 5⅓ scoreless innings earlier than going for walks into hassle in the thirteenth.
Alabama State and Southern blended to go away 37 runners on base — 20 for the Hornets and 17 for the Jaguars. The Hornets turned seven double performs.
Southern changed into attempting to win its third consecutive SWAC Tournament name.
Jacob Shames can be reached through email at [email protected], via cellphone at 334-201-9117 and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
