Southern’s baseball team had to wait a couple of extra days to get its series with Alcorn State in, but the wait didn’t hurt them much.
The Jaguars got two excellent performances from starting pitchers Ranard Grace and Drew Lasseigne combined with timely hitting and good defense to score a 14-1 and 10-1 doubleheader sweep at Lee-Hines Field Sunday.
Grace (4-0) threw six of seven-inning opener shortened by the mercy rule and allowed only an unearned run with one walk and six strikeouts. Lasseigne (4-3) had career-highs of seven innings pitched and nine strikeouts without walking a batter.
The Jaguars hit four home runs on the day, two in each game. Dominic Joseph and Dylan Jones hit home runs in the opener while Kameron Byrd had a key three-run homer in the nightcap and Rashard Grace a solo shot.
“Pitching, defense and we got some timely hits,” Southern coach Chris Crenshaw said. “It was a good day for us. Hopefully it carries over to tomorrow and puts us in a good position.
“Ranard and Drew were very efficient and then two seniors came out and closed the games out on Senior Day.”
Carlos Tumpkin threw a scoreless seventh inning in the first game and Christian Davis retired all six hitters he faced with four strikeouts in the second game.
The Jaguars (20-23, 13-9 in SWAC play) are a half game behind third place Prairie View in the SWAC West Division standings. Texas Southern is 15-5 in first place and Grambling 16-6. All three teams had postponements this weekend.
Southern and Alcorn State (4-36, 3-20) conclude the series at 1 p.m. Monday.
In the first game The Jaguars scored in every inning and got four hits from Khyle Radcliffe and three RBI from Quincy Smith. Leading 3-0 in the third, Joseph hit his fourth home run of the season over the left field fence to score Jones after a single. Smith and Radcliffe added run-scoring singles off starter and loser Myles Dews (1-4) to finish him for the day.
Caleb Tart and Tyeler Hawkins had RBI hits in the fourth before Jones keyed another four-run inning with a three-run homer over the centerfield hitter’s backdrop.
Grace allowed seven hits but only three runners got past second base.
“I was coming out and attacking the zone, executing my plan and pitching with confidence,” Grace said. “I walked one guy but never felt I was in a bind. I’ll take singles all day. I stayed in a rhythm. My goal is to try to get the offense back in there as fast as possible.”
The second victory was a little tougher, although Southern scored seven runs in the second inning with the help of two errors. Byrd capped the inning with his sixth homer over the left field fence.
Alcorn pitcher Kewan Braziel stifled the Jaguars for three innings after that, retiring nine consecutive batters. But Grace belted a solo homer and Ryan Ollison added a sacrifice fly.
Lasseigne struck out six of eight hitters he faced in one stretch.
“I felt good today,” Lasseigne said. “We’ve been talking about my seventh innings. That’s the fourth time I’ve gone out there and the first time getting out of it. That’s a big milestone at an important part of the season. Baseball is tough, tough to be good all the time. Even though we’ve been down we’ve got to start getting up.”
Southern had 17 hits in the first game but only eight in the second.
“They stuck to their approach early,” Crenshaw said. “We got to the middle innings and lost focus but we found a way to get one in the last three innings. That’s what we have to do to win ball games: stay focused, get two out hits and play solid defense.”