Southern was invited into the MLB Urban Invitational Tournament in New Orleans, LA at Wesley Barrow Stadium and came home empty-handed on both occasions in double digit standard.
Added with another loss to add to the tally that weekend to Alcorn.
First on February 19, 2016, Southern faced their rival Grambling State University and completely fell 0-15.
What makes matters difficult is they fell in their season opener 0-15 in seven innings.
The most Southern runs Southern has ever forfeited in a single game, last season was 14 and that was against Lousiana-Lafayette.
Southern head coach, Roger Cador enters his 32nd season mentions that the team was without four of their starters, which affected gameplay coming into the tournament.
Those four starters are meant to return next week.
“I’m never concerned about Game 1, especially when you’re playing short handed,” said Cador, “The fact that we were short four of our key players could have deflated our kids. It happened so quick and we played a lot of freshmen. We got here late but we don’t want to make excuses.”
Grambling fell to Southern six times last season and burst wide open in the second inning to gain a 7-0 lead. In this inning alone, Grambling sent 10 batters to the plate, which sent topsy turvy results.
“We didn’t make mistakes,” said Cador, “We just didn’t throw strikes. We just walked a lot of hitters and they hit the ball when they had to. It’s a learning experience. If it’s a film, we’ll throw it away and come back and play better the next time.”
Grambling outhit Southern completely with 13-5.
“We can only get better because we’re young,” said Cador.
On the second day of the event, Southern went against Louisiana Tech and was pounded 0-14.
Southern started this season opener with a loss and continued that streak on this event.
Louisiana Tech edged 14 hits to sum it up with 10 walks and on the defensive end, the Bulldogs was error free.
Second baseman, Robinson Mateo had two hits to attempt to put the Jaguars ahead. Jaguars starting pitcher, Harold Myles lasted only four innings, giving up nine hits and nine runs and only two of them were earned.
“We were aware that these things could happen,” said Cador, which the team is on the quest to retrieve the starters later into the season.
“We’re playing without a full deck right now. Obviously, we’re better than what it looks right now, but playing all freshmen, you’re asking them to do things they’re not ready for.”
18 years in the making, which combined with its 7-0 win over Prairie View on Friday, the two season-opening wins are the first back-to-back shutouts for Tech since 1997.
On the final occasion before the close of the tournament against Alcorn State on February 21, 2016 in which unveiled the same losing strategy as the games beforehand but with different dividends.
Southern (0-3) fell to Alcorn 2-6 but for the first time this season, Southern found their way to pick up some runs. This SWAC team hit their high in the third inning but couldn’t find their footing after Alcorn’s third inning.
The Jaguars will find their common ground at home against Jackson State University today at Lee-Hines Field.
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Series of Unfortunate Events: Southern dips face first in tournament weekend
February 24, 2016
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