NEW ORLEANS, La. – Even though "March Madness" has passed, the Prairie View A&M baseball team provided madness of its own in the month of May.  The Panthers rallied from an eight-run deficit to live another day as they eliminated top-seeded Arkansas-Pine Bluff 12-9 on Thursday morning in the SWAC Baseball Tournament.

One day after dropping its tourney opener, things looked bleak to begin the game as UAPB led 8-0 entering the bottom of the fourth.  The Panthers scored their first run of the contest in the fourth on Colby Hines' RBI single which scored Greg Salcido.  After a scoreless fifth, the Panthers chipped away at their deficit with a pair of runs in the sixth as Colby Hines drew a leadoff walk and scored on Walter Wells' RBI triple.  Edward Robledo scored PVAMU's third run of the game with a sacrifice fly that scored Wells from third.  Down 8-3 in the seventh, PVAMU inched one step closer as three straight singles by Salcido, Robert Cossey and Jeff Sealy scored Salcido from second for the 8-4 margin.

A leadoff walk by Hines in the eighth forced UAPB to dig deep in its bullpen but the move didn't pay off as Wells walked.  UAPB inserted its second pitcher of the inning after the walk but continued to struggle as Robledo walked to load the bases followed by Trey Price's bases loaded walk which closed the gap to 8-5 with no outs.  SWAC Freshman of the Year Cody Den Beste drew the Panthers to within 8-7 with a two-RBI double to right center which led to another pitching change by the Golden Lions.

The Golden Lions intentionally walked Dominiq Harris to load the bases for the force out but Salcido made them pay as his two-RBI single up the middle moved the Panthers on top 9-8 for the first time.  UAPB was forced to use its bullpen for the fourth time but once again, the Panthers kept on charging as Cossey hit a two-RBI triple followed by Sealy's RBI single for the 12-8 lead.

UAPB tried to make things interesting in the ninth with a run but reliever Sean Hollis struck out two Golden Lions following the runs to shut the door for the good and move the Panthers ahead.

Hollis came on in relief and allowed one run with six strikeouts for his second win of the season.  Five Panthers finished with two hits with Salcido leading the way with three runs and two RBIs.

The Panthers are back in action against Alabama A&M in another elimination game at 9 a.m. on Friday.  A win would set up a match-up against Jackson State at 6 p.m. on Friday evening.

The game will be broadcast live on www.SWAC.org along with live stats.