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HOUSTON – The Prairie View A&M Panthers suffered a heartbreaking defeat on Sunday evening as Southern University overcame a two-run deficit with four runs over the final three innings for a 5-4 victory in the finale of the annual MLB Urban Invitational at Minute Maid Park.
The Panthers started the game off on a positive note in the first inning as outfielder Brett Valley recorded a one-out single and scored the game's first run on Brad Benes' RBI single to right field.
In the fourth, designated hitter Greg Salcido led the inning off with a single and advanced to second following Jeff Sealy's sacrifice bunt. Outfielder Colby Hines hit into a fielder's choice on the very next play but instead of throwing Hines out at first, Southern attempted to tag Salcido out only to drop the ball at second base. An error by Southern shortstop Jeremy Lopez scored Prairie View A&M's second run of the game followed by Trey Price's sacrifice fly which brought home Hines for an early 3-0 advantage.
Panther starter Johnathon Mata hit SU leadoff batter Jose DeLa Torre to open the fifth but redeemed himself after forcing Gavin Webster to pop out. A passed ball moved DeLa Torre to second which led to him scoring SU's first run of the game on Kevin Williams' RBI single. After a scoreless sixth, Southern's Stephen Wallace opened the seventh with a leadoff triple to deep center field and trimmed Prairie View A&M's lead to 3-2 two batters later on Webster's sacrifice fly to right field with two outs.
The Panthers made a pitching change to open the eighth as reliever Stephen Lunsford began the inning with a bang after striking out Lopez. However, the Jaguars began to heat up offensively as leadoff batter Sean Washington tripled and tied the game up at 3-all following Caleb Hatcher's RBI single down the right field line. The Jaguars added another single following the score but Lunsford regained his composure and recorded a strikeout and an inning-ending grounder to end the threat. Prairie View A&M failed to seize Southern's momentum in the eighth as Southern reliever Santos Saldivar forced two groundouts and a strikeout en route to the 1-2-3 inning.
In the ninth, DeLa Torre hit a leadoff single off Lunsford and was lifted in place of pinch runner Thomas Willis. Willis eventually moved to third after back-to-back groundouts and broke the tie on Marcus Tomlin's RBI single. Sean Washington increased Southern's lead to 5-3 with his second consecutive triple to score Tomlin.
The Panthers opened the bottom of the ninth with two quick outs but began to rally as Colby Hines singled followed by second baseman Andre Oliver's walk. Trey Price cut the margin to 4-3 with an RBI single but the game came to end as shortstop Walter Wells struck out looking.
Seven players recorded a hit for the Panthers with Hines scoring two runs along with two RBIs from Price. Mata had a solid outing on the mound as he struck out seven and allowed two hits in seven innings of action. Lunsford fell to 1-1 on the year after allowing three runs on six hits while Santos picked up the win for Southern in relief.
The Panthers dropped to 0-6 all-time in MLB Urban Invitational action and will have little time to dwell on what took place this past weekend as they'll return to the diamond Tuesday afternoon for a 1 p.m. doubleheader versus Texas College on the Prairie View A&M campus.
