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Prairie View A&M saw a pair of leads evaporate down the stretch as Southern claimed a 9-8, 5-2 doubleheader on Saturday at Tankersley Field.

Southern scored twice in the top of the ninth to steal a 9-8 win over Prairie View A&M in the opener.

A pair of errors led to an early 1-0 SU lead in the first but the Panthers answered in the bottom frame as Robert Cossey singled home Grant Dougherty for the 1-1 tie.  Southern scored twice in the second to move ahead 3-1 but once again PVAMU fought back to tie the game at 3-all as Trey Price and Walter Wells logged RBIs.  The Panthers moved ahead 5-3 in the fourth as Greg Salcido drove in Dominiq Harris followed by Cossey's RBI double.

The lead was brief as Southern's DJ Wallace hit a three-RBI double in the fifth which moved SU back ahead 6-5.  With two outs in the seventh, SU tacked on another run as Brian Rowry's sacrifice fly put the Jaguars on top 7-5.

Prairie View A&M would rally over the next two innings as Walter Wells closed the gap to 7-6 with an RBI single in the seventh while a pair of Jaguar fielding errors in the eighth paved the way for two more runs and an 8-7 Panther lead entering the ninth.   Unfortunately, the lead went back to Southern's corner following the top of the ninth as Wallace hit another two-RBI double.  The Panthers led the ninth inning off with a Grant Dougherty single but a fly out and an inning-ending double play followed as the Jaguars pulled out the win.

Dougherty, Harris, Cossey and Wells finished with two hits apiece with Wells and Cossey both driving in two RBIs.  Jordan Stewart took the loss in relief as he fell to 2-4.

Game two was a mirror image of game one as Southern scored three times over the final two innings to claim a 5-2 decision.

PVAMU led 1-0 after the first as Harris doubled home Dougherty but SU countered with a run in the second on Robinson Mateo's RBI single.  The Panthers moved ahead 2-1 in the third on Harris' RBI double but Southern knotted it at 2-all in fourth thanks to an RBI from Mateo once again.

From there it was a pitcher's duel as A.J. Helms and SU's J'Markus George kept both offenses at bay but the Panthers struggled to capitalize on the offensive end as they stranded a runner on third in the fifth and seventh frames.

Southern broke through in the eighth as the Panthers committed an error to lead the inning off.  The Panthers were forced to use their bullpen and struggled initially as they issued a walk and an RBI single.  A sacrifice fly by Rowry upped the margin to 4-2 before another run in the ninth aided by an error led to a 5-2 margin PVAMU couldn't recover from.

Harris finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs along with Wells' 2 -for-4 outing at the plate.  Helms took the loss despite a six-strikeout performance over seven innings.

The series concludes on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Tankersley Field and can be viewed live via Panthervision.