Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 LIVINGSTON, Ala. – West Alabama and Shorter split a pair of low scoring Gulf South Conference baseball games Saturday at Tartt Field. UWA won the opener, 3-2, in 10 innings before dropping the nightcap to the Hawks, 1-0.
The split leaves West Alabama 22-11 overall and 11-8 in GSC play. Shorter is 9-22 and 6-12. The Tigers and Hawks are scheduled to finish the three-game set Sunday with first pitch set for 1 p.m.
"Game one was well played by both teams," UWA head coach
Gary Rundles said. "We hit it decently and pitched well."
Mitch Holgate,
Tyler Richburg,
Jack Cockrum and
Adam Chamblee each had two hits in an 11-hit West Alabama attack in game one. UWA scored single runs in the second and third innings. Shorter pushed across runs in the fourth and ninth frames.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 10
th, Shorter first baseman Bryan Mathews failed to handle a ground ball of the bat of pinch hitter
Eddie Kieffer, which plated
Tanner Rainey with the game winning run.
Rainey (3-0) earned the pitching win in relief of
Taylor Bratton in the first game. Shorter relief man Christian Champion (1-1) was tagged with the loss.
West Alabama left 14 runners stranded in the second game, including leaving the bases loaded three times in seven innings. Cockrum and
Trey Williamon had a pair of hits each for the Tigers.
"We are not getting timely hits to score runs and obviously that is the name of the game," Rundles said. "We made no adjustments in the second game against a guy that was bringing up there about 78 (mph). We have to be able to do that."
Zach Parks (6-2) went the distance while taking the loss in the second game, allowing eight hits and striking out two. Zach Whitaker (1-4) earned the win in relief of Hawks' starter Justin Machado. Russell Crosby allowed just one hit in 1.1 innings to earn his first save.
Mathews had three of Shorter's eight hits in the second game. Charlie Gillis chipped in two more. Dylan Riner and Dustin Evans had two hits each in the first game for SU.
