The Jackson State University baseball team hit a season-high three home runs to power its way to a 21-7 win in seven innings over Mississippi Valley State Sunday at Braddy Field.
JSU (16-16 overall, 4-8 SWAC) got a two-run homer from
Devontae Rhodes, a three-run homer from
Caleb Evans, and a solo homer from
Jefrey Rodriguez as the Tigers swept their first conference home series.
"It was a good thing coming home and we've been on the road for a month," said Jackson State head baseball coach
Omar Johnson of his team which played its first three SWAC series on the road. "We played better this weekend, and just to have an opportunity to sweep anybody is hard, but we took care of what we needed to take care of in the first two games. Today, we came out and did something a little different that we hadn't done in the first two games. We took our walks instead of swinging out of certain situations. We took our walks, and then it snowballed into a couple of hits, and then we ended up scoring a bunch of runs."
After Mississippi Valley St. scored five runs in the third to take a 5-4 lead, the Tigers regained the lead in the home half of the third and never looked back. With one out,
Marcus Atterberry walked before Rhodes crushed a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall to give Jackson State the lead for good at 6-5.
An eight-run fourth broke the game wide open, with 14 Tigers batting in the inning as JSU took advantage of five Valley walks. With the bases loaded and one out,
El'Rico Riley walked to scoreÂ
Jatavis Melton who reached on a wild pitch, before Atterberry was hit by a pitch to score
Chevalier Dorris Jr., who reached on a walk, to give the Tigers an 8-5 lead. Rhodes then singled through the left side, scoring
Ty Hill and Riley for a 10-5 Jackson State lead. Evans followed with a three-run homer to left on an 0-2 pitch to increase the lead to 13-5. With two outs, Dorris singled to center, scoring Rodriguez who earlier walked to push the lead to 14-5.
In the sixth, Rodriguez' homer to left field to lead off the inning highlighted a seven-run inning as JSU posted a season-high run total. Rodriguez capped the inning with a two-run single for the final margin.
A total of six Tigers each had two hits. Evans drove in a season-high five runs, Rhodes drove in a season-high four runs, and Rodriguez had a season-high three RBI. Hill, Dorris, and Gomez also had a pair of hits for Jackson State.
Juan Marulanda (4-4) got the win, allowing seven hits over six innings, allowing four earned runs with two walks and six strikeouts.
JSU returns to action Tuesday at 6 p.m. hosting Louisiana-Monroe at Braddy Field.
