Diamond Hornets heat up for SWAC stretch

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LORMAN, Miss. (bamastatesports.com)– The red-hot Alabama State baseball team completes its Southwestern Athletic Conference road schedule in a three-game series beginning Friday at Alcorn State.

Game times for the series are 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday, with a live radio broadcast of every game on bamastatesports.com. It’s the second series meeting between the Hornets and Braves, as Alabama State won all three games in Montgomery March 25-26.

The Hornets (28-14 overall, 18-0 SWAC) have won five games in a row and are coming off an impressive 3-0 win at Tennessee Wednesday night. It was Alabama State’s second baseball win over a Southeastern Conference team in three years, as the Hornets won at Auburn 9-3 on February 19, 2014.

“Win, lose, or draw, our goal is to get better and play well every time we step on the field,” said Alabama State head baseball coach Mervyl Melendez, who defeated Tennessee for the third time in his career after posting two wins against the Vols in 2005 and 2007 while at Bethune-Cookman. “Playing on the road will always present challenges for every team, and I’m pleased our guys played well last night and we were able to come out on top.”

Alabama State will look to continue its impressive play in April. The Hornets, who won their third straight SWAC Eastern Division title this past Saturday, have won 12 of 14 games this month and have been equally impressive on offense and defense.

As a team, Alabama State is hitting .335 and averaging more than 10.6 runs per game since April 1 with 23 home runs. Hunter Allen is hitting .484 in 12 games with four home runs. Yamil Pagan is batting .400 this month, with a team-high 20 hits.

The pitching staff has a combined 2.95 ERA, allowing just 37 earned runs and 21 extra base hits in 113 innings pitched. In the last five games, Alabama State has thrown three shutouts and allowed only two runs.

Alcorn State (14-25, 9-10) has played improved baseball of late, winning eight of its past 13 games, including splitting a four-game series at Jackson State earlier this month. The Braves are coming off an 11-8 road win Tuesday at SWAC Western Division co-leader Grambling State.

“We are looking forward to good weekend of baseball,” Melendez said. “We will use our travel day to get some rest and be ready for this weekend.”