BOX SCORE

BATON ROUGE, La. - It was the kind of play and intensity that Prairie View A&M head coach Waskyla Cullivan had been looking for since the SWAC Tournament started, and it symbolized the Panthers' demeanor in their 8-5 comeback win over TSU Saturday afternoon to advance to the SWAC Championship game.

Prairie View A&M left fielder Darryl Johnson covered an unbelievable amount of ground in a matter of about three seconds, left his feet and stretched out superman style to make a diving catch in foul territory. Cullivan, an even-keel, kind of guy jumped about three feet in the air multiple times as he yelled. Johnson sacrificed his body on the play, instead of giving up on the foul. The Panthers in a sense did the same thing offensively to forge a comeback after trailing 4-0 trough the first two innings.

In the third, Prairie View A&M put runners on first and second with no outs after a single by second baseman Andre Oliver and a drawn walk by James Fontenot. Right fielder Brett Valley reached on a 6-4 fielders choice, putting runners at the corners for third baseman Brad Benes with one out. Benes was hit, loading the bases for Dominiq Harris. Harris cut the Panthers' deficit to 4-1 on a sacrifice fly to center which scored Oliver. Evan Richard loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch, and Stef Hernandez followed it up with a RBI single to right field to put the PV's second run on the board. Colby Hines then hit a clutch double to left field to drive in two runs and reached third on a fielding error. Hernandez also scored on the fielding error as PV took a 5-4 lead. The Panthers scored five runs on three hits and an error in the third.

With runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, Valley hit a two-run single up the middle and advanced to second on James Fontenot's slide home that just beat the tag. Prairie View took a 7-5 lead and then added to it with a RBI double by Harris to give the Panthers a three-run lead.

The Panthers were able to battle back and win thanks to a season-saving effort by middle reliever Steven Lunsford (2-1). Lunsford came into the game in the third with a 3-0 deficit and went the distance for the Panthers. He pitched 6 2/3 innings for Prairie View A&M, surrendering just four hits and an unearned run. Lunsford only walked four batters and eventually picked up the win as Prairie View advanced to the first SWAC Championship game under fourth-year head coach Waskyla Cullivan.

The last time the Panthers made it to the SWAC Championship game was in the 2008 season when Michael Robertson, TSU's current coach, was the skipper for the Panthers. Prairie View A&M (27-23) will face the winner of Bracket B, the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Lee-Hines Field on the campus of Southern University.

PV hasn't met MVSU, the No. 4 seed from the SWAC East, since the 2007 SWAC Tournament.