BATON ROUGE, La. – The Jaguars of Southern University completed a three-game sweep of Prairie View A&M on Sunday, defeating the Panthers 13-9 in the weekend finale.
Southern (11-21, 6-11 SWAC) rallied for five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure the win; John Pope's two-run home run in the inning provided the game-winning run in the person of Dondrayas Harris to give the Jaguars the advantage they needed.
The Panthers (9-22) fell to 4-13 in league play, and are now trail Southern by two games for the fourth and final West Division playoff berth into the Southwestern Athletic Conference postseason tournament. Prairie View A&M has six remaining conference games, all of which will be played at home.
PVAMU's provided plenty of spark for the Panthers on Sunday; the Panthers accumulated nine RBIs, more than double Prairie View A&M's RBI total from the weekend's two previous games.
Shannon Washington went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, knocking a two-RBI single in the second inning and a solo home run – his third round-tripper of the season, in the fourth inning.
The Jaguars led 5-0 after one inning of play, but the Panthers immediately responded with four runs of their own in the top of the second. The first four PVAMU hitters knocked base hits, with leadoff hitter
David Drake scoring on
Thi Mai's RBI double. The next batter,
Kaylor Lewis, singled, to score
Angel Avalos and cut the home team's lead to 5-2.
Trailing 8-5 heading into the seventh inning, the Panthers rallied for four runs and what would be their first lead of the series. With two on and one out,
Angel Avalos knocked a single to score
Cody Den Beste from third base. With two outs in the inning, Lewis was hit by a pitch with a 2-2 count to load the bases.
Brashard Jones then pulled the Panthers to within one run when he drew a four-pitch walk from relief pitcher Bryan Melendez, scoring Drake with the seventh run of the game. Melendez then hit
Kevin Macias – his second hit batsman of the first four he faced – to bring Avalos home to tie the score at 8-8. Gabe Rodriguez then drew a five-pitch walk that scored Lewis and gave the Panthers the lead.
Charles Philpott took the loss for the Panthers after giving up four earned runs in the seventh inning and getting PVAMU out of a jam in the sixth. He pitched two-thirds of an inning and struck out two batters.
Darrien Williams gave up seven earned runs over six and two-thirds innings, striking one while walking five and hitting six batters.
In spite of the wildness he displayed when he first entered the game, Melendez picked up the win relief, retiring six of the final seven batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings. He improved to 1-2 on the season. Troy Lewis gave up eight earned runs over six and one-thirds innings for the Jaguars.
Mai went 2-for-3 with two doubles for the Panthers. Avalos and Drake also had two hits apiece in the game. Harris went 4-for-4 with three RBIs for Southern, while Pope went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
The Panthers will host Arkansas–Pine Bluff this weekend, with Friday's game scheduled for 3 p.m. at Tankersley Field.
The team is scheduled to travel to Grand Prairie to face Arlington Baptist on Tuesday, but those games could be postponed or cancelled due to heavy rains throughout the eastern half of Texas. For more information, check back to pvpanthers.com and the PVAMU athletics twitter handle, @PVAMUPanthers.
