FORT WORTH - The Panthers quest to repeat as Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament Champions fell short on Sunday in a 6-2 loss to Jackson State in the SWAC Baseball Championship Game at LaGrave Field in Fort Worth.

Prairie View A&M, which relied on balanced pitching and scoring to win four games in a row en route to the championship game, out-hit JSU 9-to-7. The Panthers, however, couldn't capitalize off of those hits and also fell victim to an untimely miscue in the outfield and three errors, which did not bode well against the No. 1 seeded Tigers of Jackson State.

Starter Stephen Lunsford was charged with the loss after going 5.2 innings, surrendering five runs off of six hits with only one walk. Lunsford gave up two runs off of three hits and one error in the third as Jackson State took a 2-0 lead.

Prairie View A&M designated hitter Greg Salcido did his best to strike back with a leadoff, solo-home run to left field that hit the far right side of the left field foul pole to put the Panthers back in the game with a 2-1 deficit in the fourth. However, Jackson State tacked on two runs in the fifth and one run in the sixth to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth, trailing 6-1, the Panthers saw a glimpse of a rally when All-Tournament 1st baseman Dominiq Harris singled with two outs in the inning. That was followed by a Walter Wells single up the middle to move Harris to second base. Junior outfielder Colby Hines hit a RBI single to deep right field to drive in Harris, and Wells advanced to third on a throwing error. However, the rally fell short, and the game ended on a Trey Price groundout.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Prairie View A&M's future looks bright. The Panthers had three juniors selected to the SWAC All-Tournament team in pitcher AJ Helms, first baseman Dominic Harris and left fielder Jeff Sealy. Sealy was hitting at .438 with one home run, three RBIs and three runs scored in the tournament before the championship game. He had a .688 slugging percentage in the SWAC Tournament and a .471 on base percentage.

First baseman Dominiq Harris was in the zone at LaGrave Field. He has hit two home runs in the SWAC Tournament and had a team-high six RBIs with a .600 slugging percentage and 12 total bases before the SWAC Championship Game.

Helms threw a gem of a complete game on Thursday, striking out 11 batters and surrendering one earned run in a 2-1 win over Alabama State to advance to the Southwestern Athletic Conference semifinal game. He also collected a save in the tournament.