Box Score GRAMBLING, La. – After trailing for six and a half innings, the Grambling State baseball team posted three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a lead it would hold on to for the remainder of the game en route to an 8-5 Southwestern Athletic Conference win over Southern University on Friday evening at R.W.E Jones Park.
 
Southern (11-19, 7-9 SWAC) picked up four runs in the third inning on back-to-back home runs by Ashanti Wheatley and John Pope, respectively. Wheatley hit a three-run shot, while Pope followed with a solo homer to put the Jaguars up 4-0.
 
Marshawn Taylor got Grambling (13-21, 9-8 SWAC) on the board with an RBI double that scored Phillip Adams, Jr. in the bottom of the third. The Tigers got one run in both the fourth and fifth innings to cut Southern's lead to one (4-3).
 
Taylor scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 5-all. Two batters later, Tray Bell doubled to left field to score Daniel Barnett, giving Grambling a 6-5 advantage.
 
Grambling scored two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the game away.
 
Barnett finished 3-for-3 with three runs, one RBI and a game-high 14 put outs, while Taylor and Bell each went 2-for-4.
 
Isaac O'Bear earned the win for Grambling after pitching three innings in relief. He allowed two hits and one run. Starter Elijah Saunders tossed six innings and gave up eight hits and four earned runs while striking out six.
 
The Tigers look to complete the series sweep of the Jaguars on Saturday at 1 p.m.