The season is here for the 2018 Prairie View A&M baseball Panthers, who will begin the season this weekend in the newly named Andre Dawson Classic in New Orleans, La.
Sponsored by Major League Baseball and named after only the second player from a Historically Black College and University to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Panthers will open the season Friday against SWAC runner-up Alabama State at 6:30 p.m., Saturday against Alcorn State at 3 p.m., and Sunday against Illinois Chicago at Noon. The Friday and Sunday games will be played at the Urban Youth Academy at Wesley Barrow Stadium, and Saturday's game will be played at the University of New Orleans.
Live stats for all three games will be available at pvpanthers.com.
"Our preparation for the season focused on being consistent," said third-year head coach
Auntwan Riggins. "We want to be great at the small things, like running the bases hard and taking the extra base when it's there. I'm very excited about the season. We've been practicing for a long time, and are ready to go."
Senior
Darrien Williams will get the start on the mound Friday for the Panthers, sophomore
Tyler Laux on Saturday, and junior
Caleb Rozypal on Sunday.
Prairie View A&M baseball (20-37 last year, 11-13 SWAC) will play for the third consecutive year and fifth time overall in in Major League Baseball's annual event highlighting Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which had been named the MLB Urban Invitational. The event is named after Dawson, who played at Florida A&M before embarking on a 21-year pro career with the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals), Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, and Florida Marlins.
Last season, Alabama State (31-25) defeated the Panthers twice in postseason en route to the SWAC Championship game, losing to Texas Southern. Alcorn State (12-33) beat the Panthers in last year's Classic, finished fourth in the SWAC's Eastern Division, and lost to Prairie View A&M in the SWAC Tournament. The Flames of the Horizon League lost to the Panthers in the season opener in before finishing 39-17, winning the conference championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.
"Every team here has a chance to win their conference," said Riggins of the event, which also features Grambling State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Southern, and the University of New Orleans. "It's going to be a very competitive weekend."
Riggins enters his third season leading Panther baseball. Hired in August 2015, Riggins led Prairie View A&M to 10 wins in year one, and doubled the Panthers' win total last season, the highest since 2014. PVAMU finished third in the SWAC's Western Division and advanced to the SWAC Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2014.
Darrien Williams and OF
Avery Williams were selected to the 2018 Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason All-SWAC team.
D. Williams was named first-team preseason All-SWAC, while A. Williams was named second-team preseason All-SWAC. The players are not related. In the preseason predicted order of finish, Prairie View A&M, which advanced to the SWAC Tournament semifinals in 2017, was picked to finish third in the SWAC's Western Division.
D. Williams (6-3, 205; Sr, Bryan Texas), pitched in 12 games last season with 11 starts, posting a 4-4 record with a 4.41 ERA with one save. He struck out 63 batters (t-8th/SWAC) in 67.1 innings pitched, posting five or more strikeouts nine times in 11 starts. He took a no-hitter into the final inning in throwing a one-hit, seven-inning shutout with six strikeouts in a 10-0 win at Grambling on April 1.
A. Williams (6-3, 187; So, Mexia, Texas) played in 44 games with 31 starts as a true freshman, hitting .321 with two home runs and 22 RBI. He scored 27 runs and 43 hits with 10 doubles and four triples, with a .390 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage. A Williams had 13 multi-hit games (10 2-hit, 2 3-hit, 1 4-hit), and four multi RBI games (2 2-RBI, 2 3-RBI), stole five bases in six attempts, and had an 0-1 record in seven appearances as pitcher.
The Panthers received one first place vote and were picked to finished third in the division behind Texas Southern and Grambling ahead of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Southern.
