GAME ONE BOX SCORE

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Prairie View A&M coach Waskyla Cullivan couldn't stress enough how important sweeping Texas College would be for his team in their Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders. The Panthers had to grab ahold of some much-needed momentum and did so with a 5-4 win in Game 1 and a 4-1 win in Game 2 Saturday afternoon.

Prairie View A&M forged a seventh-inning rally in Game 1 for the crushing victory. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Andre Oliver and Colby Hines both had the plate discipline to take pitches and draw walks to advance to first and second. With a runner in scoring position, Michael Long used a sacrifice bunt to put Oliver on third and Hines in scoring position at second. Brad Benes took one for the team and loaded the bases on a hit by pitch. James Rodriguez advanced on a base on ball, bringing in Oliver from third and tying the game at four.

That set the stage for catcher Evan Richard to end the game in miraculous fashion. His sac fly scored Hines from third and put an exclamation point on the win. The magnitude of it almost outshined Darryl Johnson's solo home run in the second inning. Prairie View A&M  would ride the momentum of that win into Game 2, where starting pitcher Derrick Mitchell pitched six innings, surrendering one earned run and tallying five strikeouts.

“It was really big,” Cullivan said. “Because in Game 1 we had to fight back and overcome some challenges. We did a great job. That first win really set us off, because if we would have dropped that game then we would have had our heads down in Game 2. There's no telling what would have happened from there.”

In Game 2 the Prairie View A&M batters did their work early, giving Mitchell some breathing room at the plate for his first win of the season. A Darryl Johnson two-RBI double was the highlight of the game, as it gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third. James Fontenot would score from third on a walk in the bottom of the fourth to give the Panthers a decisive 4-0 lead. Mitchell gave up a RBI on a Tanner Shaffer ground out to second, but that was his only blemish of the night.

Prairie View A&M improved to 2-4 and will face Texas College in another doubleheader on Sunday. The first pitch will be thrown at noon.