GRAMBLING, La. – Three different Mississippi Valley baseball players hit balls over the fence Tuesday (April 16), but Grambling State used a big fourth inning to take the contest by a 9-7 final at R.W.E. Jones Park.
Jordan Sawyer (Mobile, Ala.) was the first to go yard with a solo shot to left-center. The blast came in the second inning and leveled the game at 1-1. That was followed by a three run round tripper courtesy of
Wendell Rieves (Crawford, Miss.) in the seventh inning.
Billy Leflore (Carthage, Miss.) added a solo home run in the ninth.
For Valley, the three taters nearly doubled their season total from five to eight. Tuesday also marked the first games with three homers since February 18, 2017 against North Dakota.
Aaron Barkley (El Cajon, Calif.) was also a steady presence at the plate, going 3-for-5 with a run scored.
On the mound,
Gerald Pinatrich (Clairsville, Ohio) made a solid effort to start the game, going three innings with one run allowed and two strikeouts. Barkley added a scoreless relief inning in the ninth.
Grambling took control of the contest in the fourth. The Tigers sent five runs across the plate to take a 6-1 lead. However, Valley worked their way back to make it interesting a few times.
Willie Johnson (Lena, Miss.) and Leflore contributed RBI singles in the fifth to pull within three. Rieves' and Leflore's blasts cut the deficit to two, but rallies after that were cut short.
The Delta Devils drop to 6-18 (5-10 SWAC) on the season. Next up is a three game series with Jackson State, beginning Friday (April 18) at 6 p.m. at Braddy Field.
