MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama A&M (5-19, 3-7 SWAC) dropped a 10-4 decision against Alabama State (16-14, 8-2 SWAC), on Friday, April 8 in an NCAA Division I baseball game.
In the first inning ASU would waste no time getting on the scoreboard as Cristopher DeGuzman homered down the right field line and brought home Chris Lewis before Hunter May scored for a 3-0 lead. The Hornets would then capitalize in the bottom of the second inning with a barrage of runs as May doubled down the left field line for two RBIs and Lewis and Corey King scored. Trenton Jamison added another run signaling to shortstop to bring home Hunter for a 6-0 advantage.
The Bulldogs would finally respond in the top of third inning as graduate right fielder
Tim Dixon (Debary, Fla.) singled to left field and brought home graduate center fielder
Damani Thomas (Zellwood, Fla.) to cut the deficit to 6-1. ASU would then answer in the bottom of the inning as Kerrigan Edmonson scored on a wild pitch to extend their lead to 7-1.
AAMU would respond in the top of the fourth inning as Thomas doubled through the right side to bring home junior first baseman
Trevor Berkemeyer (North Las Vegas, Nev.) and sophomore defensive hitter
Janmikell Bastardo (Fort Myers, Fla.) to close the gap to 7-3. The Bulldogs would then capitalize in the top of the fifth inning as junior catcher
Jared Tribett (Lumberton, Miss.) doubled down the left field line to allow Bastardo to score and close the gap, 7-4.
The score would remain that way until the bottom of the sixth as Alabama State would answer as both Hunter and Lewis scored one run each to extend the score to 9-4. From there pitching would rule and neither team would affect the score until the bottom of the eighth inning as the Hornets answered with King reaching on a fielder's choice that brought home Dilan Espinal to close out the 10-4 decision.
DeGuzman led the Hornets with a 2-of-3 day, two RBIs, a home run and a run scored while Hunter was 2-of-2 with a pair of RBIs and three runs scored. King was 1-of-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Osvaldo Mendez threw 4.1 innings, striking out eight and allowed no earned runs to move to 4-2.
Thomas led the Bulldogs as he was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored while Dixon was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Bastardo had a 2-for-5 day with a pair of runs scored. Freshman pitcher
Avery Seaton (Huntsville, Ala.) threw three innings, striking out one while allowing seven earned runs to fall to 0-1.
The Bulldogs will be back in action on tomorrow, Saturday, April 9 for their second game against Alabama State. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
