Courtesy of GSU Athletics Reports
The Grambling State Tigers closed out the regular season by dropping two of three games at Bethune-Cookman over the weekend, but still finished with an 18-12 Southwestern Athletic Conference mark heading into postseason play.
Bethune-Cookman opened the series with a 23-1 rout Thursday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark before the Tigers bounced back with a 7-2 win on Friday. The Wildcats claimed the series on Saturday with a 12-1 victory.
Grambling State ended the regular season 21-30 overall.
The series opener quickly got away from the Tigers as Bethune-Cookman erupted for five runs in the first inning, added three more in the second and broke the game open with a 10-run third inning.
The Wildcats finished with 16 hits while drawing 10 walks and taking advantage of six hit batters and two Grambling errors.
GSU threatened early after Cameron Hill walked and Aidan Lopez was hit by a pitch in the top of the first inning, but the Tigers failed to score.
Bethune-Cookman answered immediately as Maikol Lucena delivered a two-run double before Jeter Polledo added another two-run double to help stake the Wildcats to a 5-0 lead.
The Wildcats pushed the advantage to 8-0 in the second inning before erupting again in the third. Michael Rodriguez highlighted the inning with a two-run triple while Darryl Lee added a three-run triple and Andrey Martinez capped the scoring with a two-run homer.
Grambling State avoided the shutout in the fifth inning when Martavius Thomas doubled and later scored on a wild pitch.
Thomas, Ryan Davis, Charles Ashe III and James Woody each collected one hit for the Tigers.
Keyon Guillory took the loss after allowing eight runs, seven earned, in 1.1 innings.
The Tigers responded Friday night behind timely hitting and a strong pitching performance from Trevor Esparza.
Grambling State jumped out quickly as Thomas singled to open the game before Trey Bridges doubled to right field. Hill followed with an RBI single and Hasani Johnson added an RBI double to give GSU a 2-0 lead.
Bethune-Cookman answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, but Grambling State regained momentum in the second as Chris Marcellus blasted a solo homer to left field before Davis followed immediately with a solo shot to left-center to extend the Tigers’ lead to 4-1.
Esparza kept the Wildcats in check throughout the night, allowing one run on six hits over 5.2 innings to improve to 4-2 on the season.
The Tigers added another run in the sixth inning when Marcellus doubled home Shannon Martin to make it 5-1.
Bethune-Cookman cut the deficit to 5-2 in the seventh on a solo homer by Martinez, but Grambling State answered with two insurance runs in the ninth. Hill drove in a run with a single before Johnson added a sacrifice fly.
Rafael Capistran closed out the win with 3.1 innings of relief while striking out four batters to earn his third save of the season.
Thomas led the Tigers offensively by going 3-for-4 with two runs scored while Hill and Marcellus each drove in two runs.
Bethune-Cookman secured the series win Saturday by scoring nine runs in the first inning and never relinquishing control.
The Wildcats used six hits, three hit batters and a Grambling error during the opening frame to build a commanding lead.
Despite the early deficit, the Tigers continued battling and finally broke through in the fourth inning when Hill singled and later scored on Martin’s RBI single up the middle.
Martin paced Grambling State offensively by going 2-for-3 with the Tigers’ lone RBI. Ashe added the only extra-base hit for GSU with a second-inning double.
Payton Allen suffered the loss while Nick Robinson provided 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.
The Tigers are the No. 5 seed in the upcoming SWAC Tournament and are set to face No. 4 seed Alabama State on Wednesday at 12 p.m.
