Prairie View, Tex.- As the season winds down, head coach
Carlos James and his University of Arkansas at Pine bluff Golden Lions baseball team knew the job at hand; take care of business and a trip to the 2013 SWAC Baseball Championships would be in the near future, and that's just what they did.
With a SWAC western division weekend series on tap, the Golden Lions also have to make-up the home series against PV that was rained out. These games count towards final standings and tournament seeding as well.
In the first game, The UAPB bats seemed to have a mind of their own as the Golden Lions only managed two hits as Panther pitcher Johnathon Mata was credited with a complete game shut-out. PV plated runs in the first, fifth and seventh innings for a 6-0 final. Golden Lions hurler
Jim Ploeger suffered the loss.
The rubber match of the first days offering was completely different. It could've been Coach James between game pep talk or maybe the powerade. Whatever the case may have the Golden lions bounced back for a 5-3 victory in 11 innings.
UAPB plated its first run when
Patrick Phillips came around to score on an
Isias Alcantar single in the third inning. Then in the fourth, the Golden Lions got two more runs when
Kirby Campbell crossed home on a wild pitch.
Warren Stehn would score on a sacrifice fly by
Cody De Mera.
By the ninth inning the Panthers would tie the ball game at three, resulting in the extra frames needed to wrap the game up. In the top of the 11
th, on a
Jacob Whitney single, Stehn and
Dwayne Hysmith crossed home plate to give UAPB a 5-3 advantage that would prove to be today's final.
UAPB's Staten Jones got credit for the win, while starting pitcher
Mikey Ramirez went 8 1/3 innings striking out nine.
