CLEVELAND, Miss. – In a game with not a lot of offense, the University of West Alabama baseball team had a little help fro the Delta State University defense to eke out a 2-1 victory over Delta State University to start a three-game series, Saturday evening from Ferriss Field. 

UWA goes back to .500 on the year overall at 12-12 and 5-8 in the Gulf South Conference, while DSU drops to 13-12 and 6-4. 

Clay Cook got the offense going for the Statesmen in their first inning of offense with a leadoff home run, but from there, Bryant Quimby settled in and worked around a two-out single to keep the deficit at 1-0. 

UWA had a golden opportunity to dent the scoreboard in the top of the second after back-to-back hits by Blake Vineyard and Chase Dejean. After a groundout moved the runners up 90 feet, the threat was averted after a flyout.

In the fourth, Nick Thibodeau and Vineyard reached on back-to-back hits and Dejean loaded the bases with an error.

Ryan Fletcher worked around a six-pitch walk to commence the merry-go-round and saw Thibodeau score the game-tying run. 

After the next play on a lineout, Vineyard had a helping hand scoring the go-ahead run on an errant throw by the second baseman. 

Quimby got back out on the mound with back-to-back groundouts in the bottom of the fourth. However, back-to-back baserunners saw the tying run at second base. However, a groundout to second base by Matthew Nichols ended the threat. 

Laney Keeton came into the game in the bottom of the sixth and used just one pitch to Hayden Cooper, who rolled over to second to end the inning. 

Keeping the 2-1 lead going into the ninth, Keeton worked around a one-out sing with back-to-back flyouts to seal the series opening victory. 

Bryant Quimby (2-2) tossed 5.2 innings and had nine groundball outs while allowing one earned on five hits. Laney Keeton earned the save by firing the final 3.1 innings of two-hit, shutout ball. 

Blake Vineyard had three hits on the day with a double as six of the starting nine had a hit in the game. Ryan Fletcher and Jack Beck each had an RBI. 

Clay Cook led DSU with the lone run of the game in his first plate appearance of the day with a home run. 

West Alabama will wrap up the series with Delta State in a doubleheader on Sunday at 1 p.m., weather permitting.