Third times a charm: Southern picks up their first win against Prairie View A&M

When it comes to the sport blasting with a ball and bat, the Southern University baseball team, has had their ups and downs this season when they had colossal losses against in-state teams, Grambling and New Orleans (1-6, 1-4) respectively.
After that they tried as hard as they might against Eastern Division, Alcorn State, they were only to be behind by two solitary runs (9-11) as on that night Southern picked up many runs to bring up a chain of luck.
They were not allowed to face expected non-conference matchup, Nicholls State, until freezing weather canceled the game.
The luck of the draw came to Southern as soon as they met with Prairie View A&M for the third time in a row this weekend. Even though Prairie View picked up the first two wins, on the second game of the double header, Southern came in sure third and swept P.V. to not come up with a deficit at Lee-Hines Field.
With Southern pitchers struggled to find the plate to strike out the batters, freshman right-hander Justin Freeman proved he was capable of holding his own with the solid Game 3 start.
Making his first start, Freeman insured six strong innings for Southern for a 9-5 win.
Prairie View captured the first win in Game 1 with a 9-2 win. The Panthers’ Jordan Stewart tossed a complete game, scattering nine hits and only allowing two hits for Southern.
Freeman in Game 3, changed the course and luck of the mound as soon as he entered the game.
“I was just a little nervous warming up, but then you get in the moment,” said Freeman.
“Once I stepped onto the mound, I just locked in, and everything went away,” finished Freeman.
The teams traded runs in the early bout of Game 3. Tyler Kirksey, senior outfielder, led Southern off with a first single, stole second and third and scored off of senior out-fielder, Theo Smith’s sacrifice fly.
Prairie View (4-6, 2-1) tied it in the second on Joseph Mack’s RBI groundout, but Southern (1-5, 1-2) came back to take a 5-1 lead.
Singles by senior in-fielder, Marcus Tomlin and Smith assisted Southern to load the bases with one out, this sent bad news to Prairie View head coach, Waskyla Cullivan to only accept a positive game because they are a positive program.
Prairie View came back with a vengeance to tie the score with four runs in the seventh inning. Cody Den Beste scored on a grounder to second by Anothny Fernade, who reached base when Gavin Webster dropped a double play relay at first. Connor Wyre then launched a two-out, three home runner over the left field wall to tie the score at 5.
Southern then scored four more runs in the eighth for a lead that Prairie View couldn’t escape from. Southern forced three of those runs on a pair of walks and hit a batter with the bases loaded. Southern scored its fourth run of the inning on a sacrifice fly.
Southern head coach Roger Cador although elated about the win, still believes there are improvements in the ballclub for the team.
“We came back and scored runs, and we did it based on their pitchers not throwing strikes,” said Cador, ”When you’re not playing well you have to find ways to win, and we’re not playing well. We’re not a very good ballclub right now.”
Cador came in to accept the pitcher Freeman upon the mound when he said, “Freeman came in and pitched strongly because he was confident and composed. It was all about pitch location. He has a chance to do some really good things.”
Southern will be expected to come through in the rest of the season as they visit Southeastern Louisiana at 6pm on Wednesday.