Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ROME, Ga. – West Alabama baseball split a doubleheader with Shorter University in the team's first ever meeting on Saturday. The Tigers responded to a 2-1 loss in game one with a 4-2 victory in game two.

 “We pitched real well today,” said UWA head coach Gary Rundles.

“Their pitcher just had us tied up in game one. He had us chasing the ball out of the zone. We just didn't have good approaches and we didn't take advantage when we had guys on. We did a better job in game two of getting the hits we needed to take advantage of those situations.”   

West Alabama now moves to 19-21 on the season; 12-7 in the Gulf South Conference. Shorter is now 13-25 overall; 8-10 in the conference.
David Summerall (6-2) pitched the entirety of game one to allow only one run, four hits and claimed nine strikeouts to pick up the win on the mound.
Taylor Bratton (4-3) allowed only two runs and five hits through seven innings to get the loss.

Barry Meeks (3-3) picked up the win in game two striking out five batters and allowing only two runs through six innings. Cameron Rich (2-6) opened the first four innings but allowed four runs and eight hits to get the loss.

Jeremy White (1-2) put away the final three Shorter hitters in game two to record the save. White now leads the GSC with four saves on the season.

“Taylor Bratton pitched very well in game one even though he didn't get the win,” Rundles said.

“We didn't do enough offensively for that to happen. Barry Meeks competed real well in game two. The only bad pitch he gave up, the guy hit it out of the park. And Jeremy White did an excellent job coming in and getting a one, two, three inning to finish it out.”

Shorter's Dustin Evans ended game one 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI. Brett Langham and Josh Podoris both ended 1-for-4 for West Alabama at the plate. Langham had one RBI and Podoris had the only UWA run.

Matthew Magee ended game two 2-for-4 with two RBI. Shorter's Darrius Jennings hit a two run homerun, his second of the season, in the bottom of fifth inning. Jennings finished 2-for-4 at the plate.  

West Alabama will seek its first GSC road series win in game three tomorrow. The series finale is scheduled for Noon (C.S.T.) at Ledbetter Complex.

“Tomorrow we need to pitch well,” said Rundles.

“We need Bolleter to have a good start. Offensively, we need to keep our strikeouts down and get the ball in play to put more pressure on them. We can run the bases against them but we have to get runners on base first.”