GRAMBLING, La. | The Grambling State University baseball team fell to Texas Southern 23-12 in a non-conference contest on Friday night at Wilbert Ellis Field at R.W.E. Jones Park.
GSU (4-5) plated 12 runs on 12 hits with two home runs. In comparison, TSU (2-8) exploded for 21 hits, including four homers.
Martavious Thomas led GSU offensively, driving in four runs while going 2-for-4 with a double and a grand slam.
Texas Southern got things going early when Jesse Herrera hit a leadoff homer to left field in the top of the first. TSU pushed that lead to 5-0 in the in the third inning.
Grambling State's
Nyan Hayes plated GSU's first run in the bottom of the third with a sacrifice fly.
With Texas Southern leading 8-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Thomas tried to provide a spark for GSU when he walloped his first homer of the season, a grand slam, that cut TSU's lead to 8-6.
Texas Southern responded with three runs in the top of the seventh to grow its lead back 11-6. With score set at 11-7 in the top of the eighth, TSU broke the game open with an eight-run inning to take a 19-7 lead.
In the bottom of the frame, Hayes smacked a two-run homer to centerfield to a make it a 19-9 game. GSU avoided to run-rule loss later in the frame when
Aries Gardner scored on a wild pitch. Grambling State scored a total of five runs in the eighth, cutting TSU advantage to 19-12.
Texas Southern wrapped up the scoring with four runs in the ninth.
Randy Reyes (0-1) was tagged with a loss after pitching three innings and surrendering five runs on five hits. He struck out one batter and issued a pair of walks.
Nick Robinson,
Hampton Phillips,
Javier Martinez and
Brett Washington also saw action on mound for GSU.
For Texas Southern, Jaden Jones had the hot bat going 4-for-6 with five RBI and a pair of doubles.
TSU starting pitcher Calvin McClendon (1-0) gave up two runs on four hits in five innings.
UP NEXT
Grambling State continues its home series versus Texas Southern with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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