GRAMBLING, La. | The Tigers dropped game two and three of its Southwestern Athletic Conference weekend series with losses of 15-4 and 12-1 to Prairie View A&M on a tough and rainy afternoon at Wilbert Ellis Field at R.W.E Jones Park. The first loss of Saturday's doubleheader snapped Grambling's four-game conference win streak.
Game 2
Prairie View 15 Grambling 4
In the bottom of the first, GSU (15-21 overall, 12-5 SWAC) tied the contest at 1-1 when sophomore shortstop
Cameron Bufford produced a home run to left field. The Panthers regained the lead with a run in the top of the second inning, but the Tigers answered back in the bottom stanza when catcher
Ben Avila generated an RBI to score third baseman
Jeremy Almaguer to bring the score to 2-2.
Prairie View responded with four runs in the third inning to lead 6-2, but Grambling managed a run in the fourth when Avila generated a sacrifice fly-RBI to right field that allowed
Rafael Ramirez, III. to cross home plate. The Panthers added another run in the fifth inning before Bufford smacked his second home run of the game for Grambling in the bottom stanza to cut the deficit to 7-4.
Both sides were held scoreless in the sixth inning, but Prairie View (11-16 overall, 11-7 SWAC) scored eight unanswered runs to close out the game.
GSU starting pitcher redshirt junior
Marc Luna (2-4) earned the loss as he struck out three Panthers batters while allowing six earned runs and 10 hits in 4.0 innings of work. GSU pitchers
Corben Peters,
Kaelin Woodard and
Brandon Tyler all came in for relief work late in the contest, but neither could slow down the Panthers offense.
Almaguer finished the game 4-for-4 from the plate with one run scored while fellow Tiger Bufford finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored and 2-RBI in the loss.
Game 3
Prairie View 12 Grambling 1
The Tigers offense struggled in the final game of the series as Prairie View proved to be victorious in the rubber match that was briefly halted with a rain delay.
Phelts batted 2-for-2 and produced the team's lone RBI when he produced an RBI-sacrifice fly to right field to drive home Gunn, but as a team Grambling had a total of eight runners left on base and could not capitalize on three Panthers errors.
Redshirt sophomore pitcher
Kimani Bailey (1-1) earned the loss for Grambling, allowing four earned runs while striking out three Panther batters in 2.2 innings of work.
Up Next
Grambling State will host Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a weekend series beginning on Friday, May 7. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Wilbert Ellis Field at R.W.E. Jones Park.
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