The Southern Blues: Baseball falls to Grambling State

Historically speaking, the Southern University Baseball team is the best Division 1 sports team we have at the university. With 96 Major League Draft Pick Selections, 31 regular season SWAC conference championships, and 2 Major League Baseball Hall of Famers, Southern has a long history when it comes to baseball. However, this season the team hasn’t lived up to its star-studded history, and that was apparent in the matchup on the diamond between the Southern University Jaguars and the Grambling State Tigers.
The first inning started promising for the Jags with three runs that came from the runners batted in (RBI). The crowd showed immense excitement as they were prepared to see a show. This momentum of scoring every inning continued for the Jags until the 3rd inning when Grambling starting pitcher Senior Kerry Long started throwing hooks back to back that the Jags just couldn’t combat. This led to Long striking out all three batters in a row. The energy and confidence the Tigers were able to muster up in the 3rd inning transitioned over to the 4th, completely changing the pace of the game. The inning started with a score for the Tigers off a pop-up. Then, 2 more walks allowed by the Jags set the Tigers on the 3rd and 2nd base. Another walk was given, resulting in all the bases being covered. This was followed up by yet another walk, which gave the Tigers another point. Finally, the pitchers were switched, and #50 Junior Jaden Brasseneaux was brought to the mound. However, on his first pitch, he allowed a walk which had the Tigers covering all three bases again. This inning was brought home when #10 Junior Julian Murphy hit a home run giving the Tigers a grand slam. After this tremendous feat, the Jaguars just couldn’t keep up. The Tigers scored every single inning afterward to lead them to a 13-6 victory over the Jags.
All in all, this game was lost due to the pitching sequence. Throughout the nine innings, the pitchers were rotated out four different times. This was due to the 11 walks that were allowed, with Senior pitcher Jalen Long Brassenaux having a total of 6 walks with 6 hits. When asked about the pitching after the game, Junior pitcher Antione Harris said, “We need to come focused. We need to worry about putting the ball in play and not so much about striking someone out. When we focus on that we’ll be good.” While today might not have been the ending they wanted, the Jags play their next game Tuesday, April 25th, against the University of Louisiana Lafayette; where they can hopefully show the Ragin Cajuns just why this team has the history it does.